Been meaning to reply to this one as it has been a bone of contention for a while. The answers should be obvious - if we are talking about challenging for the title then yes we would be punching above our weight. If we are talking about challenging for a top 4 place then no we are absolutely where we should be.
There are two distinct groups in the top 6 from a financial point of view:
- Utd, City & Chelsea - These 3 have financial power that none of the rest have. The source of this money may be debatable but since nothing has been done by the authorities thus far it will simply be something we have to deal with. They can afford to buy/outbid anyone but as we have seen in the last few years, all of them can be beaten.
- Spurs, Arsenal & ourselves - We are all around the same level financially. Yes, the exact order may change depending on the exact year and Arsenal may have a little bit more based on a bigger stadium & regular CL but we are not talking about a vast difference.
We should be challenging for a top 4 place every season without fail. Yes, that doesn't mean that we would necessarily achieve it every year but we should be in the mix. If you look back on the last 5-6 seasons you will find that our poor points totals have been the reason we have finished where we have and not because other teams have done unbeatable jobs. In the last two seasons we could've achieved CL qualification with 70 points but we were even worse than the rest.
As we discussed in a Paul Tompkins thread a few years ago, in order for us to challenge for the title everything needs to go for us and that includes the top 3 playing below their level. Spurs have shown it is possible to stay at a high level two years running, and we can do the same but only if we correct the large issues we have in the squad right now.