That's not how the club sees it. I'm not a finance person, so take this next bit with a grain of salt. To us fans that watch regularly, we firmly believe no one is paying more than 10m for him. However, he is 28, English, and an important member of the squad that got to the semi-finals of the WC 2 years ago. The price for a similar profile player is somewhere between 30m and 50m, which is probably what the club have him down in their books as (maybe even more). I don't think any auditor is going to argue too much with that valuation. So if you take his 3.5m wages, it's still a net positive for the club. If you let him walk away for free, his wages are no longer being paid, but the loss in asset value is greater. Do something similar for 3 or 4 players, even if they are not playing, and the clubs books looks a lot healthier to the shareholders.