Consider that Marti is persisting with dross like Soumare and playing Ayew as a 9 to prove a point to the board - "If you don't back me, this is what you get". I wouldn't be surprised if the board think the squad is good enough to compete because of the money they've spent on them (sunk cost fallacy, anyone?) and how well we did 2 years ago.
While the window is open and there's a chance he gets his own players in, I'll not be drawing too many conclusions on Marti's team selections.