Its a v good point actually - and i think most of those you quote took a gamble and spent big on the wrong players or picked the wrong players for the formation they played (Norwich :) ) and Norwich aside sunk several divisions in quick succession before going back to basics and rebuilding.
Let me ask a different question..Would you REALLY be happy if we ended up scraping by in 17th place after a promising 1st half of the season? Like a few others have said if all we can expect over the next x number of seasons is the same, from the same management team, I'd rather we went down...