We're not pushing further and further ahead though, realistically. In the league, we've gone from putting up a title challenge and at points actually being within a couple of points off top and having the chance to go top (but collapsing at the end when it was no longer mathematically possible), to being involved in a title race but never really getting closer to 4-7 points off a team which gained an incredible amount of points, to finishing comfortably in 3rd place, 7 ahead of 4th and 4 behind 2nd, to currently being involved in a scrap for a top 4 place and 22!!! points off 2nd place.
We've gone from 1 point off 2nd (but should have been 2nd), to 2nd, to 4 points off 2nd (but 23 off 1st) to currently 21 points off 2nd.
There is no objective measure that can say we have pushing further and further ahead in the league. We are falling behind in the league. We've reached 2 stages further in the CL, though injuries and lack of attacking depth looks set to potentially screw us. And domestic cup semi, which is not as far as we've reached before.
And how far do we take this attitude? I saw it quite a few times when people justified no transfers for the last 2 windows, this much vaunted team spirit. Why ever bother making another transfer ever again? How long do we not make transfers for? Could ruin this much vaunted team spirit right? When did we become this insular set of fans where all other players are somehow viewed with suspicion that they'll ruin the team dynamic and spirit? As if we added an attacking mid or a central midfielder, we'd just have infighting or the team spirit plummet.