I've said many, many, times that top 4 as an expectation should be miles off anyone's radar. We're years away from that level. European qualification is a totally different thing. Finishing 7th out of 20 with the budget we have really shouldn't be asking too much.Not at all. The point made is I don't feel that in the situation we are in a manager will come in and do a better job than Carlo did with this set of players. This is due to the fact that a top experienced manager knows what it takes to be a top team, what the players need mentally (which he repeated in the last month of his tenure), and he didn't see it with the majority of this squad.
Additionally, the core of this squad have played under different managers, different systems, and failed them also. So from every angle there is a problem at the based of the playing squad to get to a place of success.
So overall, the new manager has to come in, has to make huge changes, and be given the time. In this case, challenging for a top 4 spot etc is something, IMO, we shouldn't even consider until that is done.
You think Ancelotti was the answer, I think he was a big part of the problem. We'll just have to see how it goes I suppose, but the new manager has to do very little to be an improvement in my eyes.