by Vision » 
          01 Oct 2020 13:08
         
         
        
       
       
       Snowflake Royal Vision I always thought the main reason for these long contracts, especially for money signings,  is to flatten the cost with regards to FFP. We weren't doing anything unusual within the game - aside from signing the wrong players of course.
Another example of how FFP was/is deeply flawed.
That only really works for spreading big transfer fees though doesn't it?
And that's always the way fees have been accounted for.
I know you weren't really talking about McNulty, but say he is on £12k a week. That's 600k ish a year. 
It makes no sense to spread his fee of say £1m from £333k over 3 years to £250k over 4 years at an extra £600k of cost and risk.
 
Yeh I'm speaking generally of course but soon adds up if you buy 5-6 players every summer transfer window. Obviously resale possibilities come into play too. Someone like Puscas (5 year deal I think)  the consideration would be both flattening the FFP liability as well as potential resale for a highly regarded European player.  
As I said it isn't/wasn't just us. It became something of the norm at other clubs so to attract/keep players we had to follow suit to some degree. 
I do remember when Meite got his lengthy contact extention and the general reaction to that.  One of our most saleable assets now.