Last 2 seasons we've finished closer to Europe than relegation, a good 20+ clear of relegation in each seasons.
We then spent more in the summer than the previous 7 years combined, so perhaps we can start looking up.
You can cut stats the way you want - last season we were indeed closer to a European spot than a relegation one in terms of points, but firstly that was pretty much down to
Moyes as we were right in the middle of a relegation scrap when he arrived and secondly the points total for the bottom three last season was the lowest in PL history, so it feels a bit disingenuous to phrase it that way.
The season before is a funny one to argue as on the pitch was 48 points, but we still had to concern ourselves with relegation for a while (thanks Premier League), but were again aided by a very poor bottom three (the 2nd lowest in PL history, I think)
And yes, we did spend more this summer than the previous 7 years combined in net terms, but only because we literally had to replace so many players who were out of contract. In gross terms, it was less than the previous 3 combined (still not insignificant).
Point I'm making here isn't that we shouldn't be looking upwards, we absolutely should be looking to improve on last season's 13th place finish and points tally of 48 points, but it's all relative - we've not significantly outspent any of the teams above us and we weren't exactly building from a position of huge strength (far from it).
I'll 100% accept that about 10th should be a realistic aim, but nobody is convincing me that we
should be qualifying for Europe this season and that if we don't it's been an underperformance
himself.
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