What's going wrong?

And that goes back to what I said about Fergie, he would ask the board for 1 player he thought could improve the team and if anything was left strengthen the squad.
I fear we will be in the same situation as you now, Jose will want another 3 or 4 expensive players this season to try and catch City, if he gets knocked back the dummy will go.
One top signing per season may take 3 or 4 years to reach the top but that is what re-building is all about, building for the long term not next year.

 

Frustration is my problem too. Some fans are quite happy that we are there or thereabouts most years, and it's true we are. But with simple clear planning, and spending no more than we do, maybe even less, we could have built a team with a base of 6 or 7 top notch players, + 4 or 5 just below that level, some on the way up, some down, and a squad we could interchange and not see the joins. That way, most seasons we would need only one new player, and would retain our squad at a level we can only dream about.
Instead we have this constant 2 steps forward, two back every other season.
That's interesting in its' own way, but it's not how Abramovich would run his business ( I hope) and not the way to run the Club in this day and age. Can't argue with the success, (at a cost of some 3.5 billion in wages and transfers as owner )but he'll need double that to do it again next 15. If he doesn't have that, he'll need to re assess his methodology to keep us up there.