Here's a really left field idea.
Having watched the team all season, seen what goes right, what goes wrong, etc, and having had time to look at the rest of the game and determine who would fit why doesnt the management bring in the RIGHT players EARLY (as in, for a full pre-season) for once ? I havent advocated buying any old players, just for the sake of it, even once.
We've tried it your way - the pooving around into late August - every season, with imo somewhat patchy results.