It's not even necessarily wasting money on their new players, they are devoid of a plan on and off the pitch. I think(?) this stems first between Moshiri and Kenwright, both are polar opposites of what they want/expect and therefore how to implement what they want.
They've hired some very smart DoF's recently but hired some absolute cloggers as managers, so there are two different approaches going on here.
So, if the players were purchased with a particular profile in mind (to play a more progressive brand of football) they've hired Managers that play a regressive style of football. That's never going to work IMO.
That last paragraph could have been us the last 2 years