Have to agree with you there. For me it's no dead cert that we'll be promoted at all. The loss of Hales hampered us this summer, whilst James Taylor was a huge miss, he was a fantastic middle-order batsman. Not having Ball for a number of games (5 and a half I think) was irritating too given he barely played for England.
We have some good young players coming through, especially Tom Moores, Jake Libby and Matt Carter, but they are still inconsistent, whilst normally reliable players such as Lumb and Read faltered last year, likely down to age. We'll challenge yes, but we will in no way walk it imo, despite our huge financial advantage.