Let me clarify. Getting knocked out of the group stage of the CL is a failure that is only somewhat salvaged by winning the Europa League. Yes, a lot of luck is involved in winning trophies. But when you have a complete failure at the start, it can only be salvaged by winning the competition you are favourites to win because you get dumped into it from a superior competition. No excuses at that point. We were by far the best team in the competition and are a far better team than Villareal, yet we bottled it. So of course this season was a failure as a result.
Normally, no you can't go into a season expecting to win trophies. But the only way to salvage a season from being a failure after getting knocked out of the CL is actually winning the EL, and we failed that. Had we got through the CL group and fell at the quarter finals, fine, no biggie, that's about our level. Had we won the EL, great, we won a trophy and made up for getting knocked out of the CL. As it is, we got knocked out of the CL and lost in the EL to the 7th placed side in Spain.