Martinez has to take a large part of the blame for this, has sat around twiddling his thumbs whilst other clubs around us make ambitious signings which could have convinced some of the lads that we can compete at the top. Players like Cabaye, Wijnaldum, Payet, Mitrovic, Ayew all could have massively improved the club whilst we champion the board for getting in a under 21 player who won't feature for the first team, an average squad player on a free and an inconsistent (albeit with big potential) 21 year old who we had 2 seasons ago for a small fee.
Still time to go of course but after last season it was clear we needed to get rid of the deadwood and bring in 2-3 quality additions (the most important being a playmaker) but so far we look absolutely clueless in the market.