Malvolio in real life is probably a theoretical physicist. All he does is imagine, hypothesize and then discuss the possible alternatives. Never focus on the real world, what actually happened, where we actually played and what we actually won. But he doesn't recognize if we played in EPL we would probably have enough money not to rely on a 40 year old striker, tercera fullback and a retired goalkeeper (among other types unique to our team last season)
And yeah speaking of this theory we had it tested few weeks ago. I'd say your conclusion from it makes no sense. We played Newcastle off the park, and they are held as a pretty tough side in the PL. Would we be able to do it week in week out? Probably no. Would take some time and some money, to get a more physical squad and better players at some positions. But this discussion is completely irrelevant because we won't play in the PL. What matters is how we do vs PL competition in Europe