Unless it is offset with a lower sale price. The 17 million euros quoted for Werner appears to be such a case. Else they would have probably asked for closer to 25 million. So the buying team will either pay more in the purchase fee, or in the salary, but should probably net out the same.
Going forward yes, but you have the likes of Chelsea with a squad full of mediocre but highly paid players, who will not leave if it means a serious drop in wages.
Transfer fees are only a part of the equation, when you have clubs paying out more than 70% of their income as wages, then that is going to be a focus for clubs, no matter how much the transfer fee is reduced.
We're one of the most frugal when it comes to wages, we're also one of the highest revenue raisers in World Football, yet we are showing a loss over the last few seasons.
Chelsea earn a lot less than use in revenue, yet their wage bill dwarfs ours. Newcastle have only started their journey with the Saudis, and yet they're struggling to keep within P&S. Utd are at the thick end of P&S, the list goes on.
All those clubs and more, can't offload their big earners to Europ, because everyone's skint. They can't offload to PL big spenders because they're either too old or too poor to justify the wage.
Essentially, they're stuck with them until the contract runs down. Even the Saudi league won't help them, because no one wants to stay there, it's a hellhole.
You might be right that it nets out the same, but that still leaves these clubs with a deficit they need to dig themselves out of, and if those cheaper but higher wage players fails? They're in the mire even deeper.
I really can't see them having any other option but to tighten the belt over the next few years, until they gradually see out each high paying contract, with a lower wage one to replace it.
I use Chelsea as my main example, because they're probably in the worst possible position right now. There's only so many academy products they can offload to balance their losses so, unless they get a lot better than they actually are, they can't rely on CL money. There's already 4-5 teams clearly better than them.
Other teams are affected to lesser degrees, as they likely have shorter contracts left on their big earners, but all of them will be tightening their belts for a few years I'm thinking.
