I think with the arrival of Citeh and re-emergence of Spurs this season is very much a one step back to make two steps forward. I can see something like this happening -
Marshall, Shorey, Bouma, Gardner, Harewood gone.
Ship out the dead wood: Beye, Osbourne, Salifou, Sidwell, Heskey.
Move on/let go the elder players who are on big wages: Friedel, Luke, Carew.
Finish in the top 8 this season to consolodate, surely have a new permanent manager in by the start of next Summer and ship out that lot above and we'd be left with something like this:
Guzan
Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Davies Warnock
Ireland, Petrov, NRC, Delph, Young, Albrighton
Agbonlahor, Delfouneso
With potentially Sigergist, Clark, Lichaj, Bannan and Weimann to add if any of them prove they're good enough over the coming season.
The new man will have a core squad of 13 core, capable players, with a massive pot of money ontop to spend on adding 5-7 ontop to create his own team.
The long term future is bright, IMO.