If we can't afford it then neither can our opponents, so it should take less talent to outsmart their relatively-poorer midfielders and defenders too. (They can still just clog us instead, but they can and did do that in the 90's as well.)
Wonder if there's actually any realistic suggestion that wouldn't result in some folk saying "good shout" and twice as many saying "no fucking thanks".
Not sure fielding half a team of people who've never played together before will necessarily help, even though our usual starters look like they haven't either. I'm prepared to reserve judgement until the new arrivals are up to speed.