OP was thoughtful and well put as have been a good deal of other posts on this thread. FWIW the players confidence seemed to nosedive after Wembley last year and translated into a woeful end to the season. As is often the case this lack of confidence affects form and very often continues into the following season. This is no endorsement of Pellegrino by any means but this precedes his tenure and falls fairly and squarely into Puel's lap. Looking at our rise, the very best we probably could have expected was to win one of the domestic cups. We were never going to get in the ECL and didn't have the squad for an extended tilt at the Europa League. The EFL Cup was our big chance, but despite playing well enough to win we came up short. Cue dismal end to season and start to this. You only have to look back to Leicester's season's end in 2015 and start to the following one for a graphic illustration of how it can go the other way!