I expected top 8 because IMO we have a squad that is good enough, I wouldn't give the team credit for losing because that signifies that losing is O.K, for the rest, apart from Cas away and Catalans at home there have been one or two pretty average performances and a few dire ones.
In a position where there is no relegation and we're pretty much out of the play offs did we need to spend money that we apparently haven't got on a mid season signing?
What we're spending on players wages is irrelevant as long as we're paying them, this squad has put some performances in this season that didn't deserve paying when, given the right attitude and intensity, they had the quality to win games.
IMO we have a good enough squad already to create a winning team at home, we just need a coach that can get the best out of them.

Cas did play well but were so utterly abysmal that it is hard to know how the game would have gone if we had got off the bus. If you play like that the opposition will look good. That said Cas have done well lately but it is still a game we should have been looking to win as is the next timne we play them

You have to get through good sets of 6 and we have consistently failed to do that. Yes it can be a bit dull, but that's RL these days. Big, fast strong, go-forward battering rams who have to win the battle to get up off the floor quickly and win easy yards. No errors. Kicks that make the opposition play from deep. Of course we all know this, but it is something we did quite well under Kear more often than we have under Agar. You have to win the field position before you can start the flashy stuff. We often try to play ourselves out of a box with flashy stuff in the wrong part of the pitch and pay the price.

After 18 games last year we had 12 points - this year we have 15.
The run at the end of last year came as a result of a settled and injury-free (relatively speaking) squad.

The start of last season saw us struggle to get the best out of our key player as he had no suitable foil to work with (Smith and Sykes).
This year we have been missing that foil once again for a large part of the season, now he is back and we have won the last 2 games (all be it against "weaker" opposition).
Perhaps we should wait another few weeks to see whether Sykes can add that extra dimension to Smith's game again and we can then kick on like we did last year.

I do think there are a couple of games that have got away from us that realistically we should/could have won but that happens to everyone over the course of a season.
We have a lot to do to make the top 8 this season but at this stage of last season you would have given us absolutely zero chance of making it so let's not assume that this season can't be the same.

Yep agree with that.

When suggesting we 'should' have won certain games, some people conveniently forget that there are an equal number of living, breathing, thinking (to some extent) human beings on the pitch, who have a say in how that pans out; we're not playing against cardboard cut-outs!

There are many games that we 'could' have won, but I'm not sure about 'should.'