..."most football fans" would agree that a £30m outlay to take your club from 8th to 12th isn't a sign of progression.
I'm getting a bit bored of that '£30m' line you keep persisting with. We lost a few ageing players from our squad - Kuyt, Bellamy and Maxi - for a combined fee of £1m as far as I'm aware. Those players need to be replaced. We also lost the likes of Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing, etc.
Whatever your opinion of these players, they were all main parts of the first team squad. When they're not there anymore they need to be replaced.
We spent £10m on one player (Borini), £15m on one (Allen), £3m on one (Assaidi), and £1m on a youth player (Yesil).
How the hell does that in your mind equate to some sort of lavish spending spree?? Like £30m is going to build a fantastic new squad in this day and age. We're nearly in 2013, not 1983.