Nope. I can almost guarantee that a player is not slightly bothered if we are in the Europa league or 7th instead of 11th. They play for the money first and maybe a chance to win things second. Ill say this as well, nobody will be bothered about the stadium either. Players want money and a club that will stroke their ego (there are one or two exceptions).
Perez joined Arsenal, Gabbiadini stayed at Napoli, neither of which is random crap.
Good players may be convinced to join if there is a plan in place. Thats up to the manager to make that happen.
In terms of attracting players we are in no worse a position than we have been for nigh on 15 years. Besides the good players are not always the obvious ones. Its attracting the right players not just the best ones.
And Witsel stayed at Zenit or something, William Carvalho stayed at Sporting (who are competing on many fronts, Europe included), Lamine fecking Kone stayed at Sunderland. SUNDERLAND! The list can go on and on afterwards anyway, you catch my drift. Also Napoli are no better than us right as of this moment.
Was also vising us as the 'random crap' in that sense - Arsenal coming in for him, big money, big name, big team, will be top 4, everyone knows them... or us, won nothing, finishing bottom half. Yeah, I know which one I'd choose, even on equal money, do you?
Could you honestly imagine, say, Mata (I know, we were never in etc etc) going "you know what, I'll snub the massive brand that is United who will probably finish in/near the top and go play for Everton so we can finish 10th again. YEAH!"? I honestly can't, and same goes for the rest of those.