So here’s the bit I don’t understand (not an accountant in any way shape or form).
If you can ‘amortise’ (if that’s a verb) the value of a contract for any given year, and essentially divide your expenditure by the length of the contract, why do you also get to benefit from the full value of a sale immediately?
So, you have 100 million pound player on a ten year contract and can say ‘I’ve only spent 10 million this year’. Fine.
But for Havertz by way of example, they’re claiming the full value of his sale immediately to the tune of 65 million. Shouldn’t the same principle apply; they only get the annual value of that sale, being whatever Woolwich give them this calendar year?