I think we might need to exercise a bit of perspective here. Thelwell walked into a mess at this club, with a lot of infrastructure decimated, and what was there before was not that impressive anyway. We only knew at the end of May what division we were playing in this season. We were forced to sell a big asset by the end of June to be able to do any transfer business at all. We only in the last couple of weeks got clearance from the PL about our financial situation.
I would assume that all this has left a great deal of uncertainty and delayed a lot of business. The business done so far has mostly been good IMO. You can shout about not having a goalscorer, but before DCL got injured everyone was crying about defenders and midfielders.
In summary deciding right now if the DOF is a success or failure is a little bit foolish.