Yes - I know all that.West Ham and Leicester are **** at the moment. That doesn't make Payet and Mahrez bad players.
The Spam side that went down in the 02/03 season was one of their more talented ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002–03_West_Ham_United_F.C._season#First-team_squad
You could probably make a side that would challenge for the top 6 by cherry-picking the bottom half teams.
League positions don't reflect the talent of individuals at the club, especially lone players.
Modric and Bale were in our 2 points from 8 games side.
But Defoe is never going to be a core player in a team capable of winning the league. It is much more important to give playing time to someone like Janssen who just might be, in my opinion.
