Cranney you are getting very very pessimistic man.
We are not in as bad a position as you think and we may be pleasantly surprised this season.
Shelvey has looked very good, Joe Cole could play a part, Borini looks a good player and Pacheco and Suso have done their chances no harm.
I'm not surprised Stevie G wasnt at his best last year as after Xmas we basically turned into a Cup team at the expense of the league.
Of course we can get top 4 this year, it won't be easy but we can do it. We lost a very important player last year when Lucas was out. We then had the Suarez issue which was a distraction as well as losing him for something like 9 games, Gerrard was still struggling to get his match fitness back for what was left of the season after he came back, we had to play with 5 new singings all new to each others play and most of them didn't find their feet all season.
This season will be a very different one to last in so far as we are most unlikely to confront all those issues again. Add to that a new manager with at least one new singing, a player known to be suited to his style of play with the possibility of one or two more. I an cautiously optimistic and hopeful that we will make the top 4 this season.
If someone wants an issue to post some negative thoughts, how about Werner' cap on spending for quality players, now that's something that really threatens our club at this point in our rebuild and we should be demanding funds for signing top quality players not more "potentials" ...3 out of 4 of which never make it, but not many want to deal with it, or so it seems.