Its just a matter of difference in business model. Rags, Dippers and ourselves have more or less the same turnover. We spend ours on players. Our players wage bill is about the same as theirs, but individually, our players earn somewhat less than at those clubs. We spread the wages amongst a deeper squad i.e. higher quality 'second string'.
We achieve this by avoiding very expensive galacticos. Compare cost and ages: e.g. Dias vs VVD, Slabhead: all our midfielders vs Pogbad: Eddie vs Alison, De Gea etc etc. Think of all the players we have bypassed as being too expensive: Alexis, Koulibali, Fred, Slabhead etc. I would wager we will not pursue Haarland unless both his agent and Dortmund demand sensible terms.
Secondly, we are not saddled with greedy owners or enormous debt interest as rags are. Not sure about Dippers current situation but you can be sure their owners will want their pound of flesh rather than a deeper squad.
It has been our policy for many years now to buy young, apply the very best in coaching and build a deep squad by improving good players to be excellent.(see zinch). In this compressed season, our enhanced ability to rotate is sending the dippers crying into their beer on the treatment table.
In summary, we are just better managed with the medium term in mind, not just one season.
On top of that we have a brilliant coach.
Pep's successor will need a proven track record of coaching younger players up the ranks.
