It's not conjecture. It's accounting practice for writing down the value of an asset.
Look, I don't really see what you are arguing about. It's a completely rational approach for expensing any purchase of a player. If you buy a player for £10m on a 5 year contract, then it makes perfect sense to expense that out at £2m a year. That isn't conjecture, it's an accounting technique for an intangible asset that will not have any residual value at the end of the 5 year period (a free transfer). If some value happens to be realized during that period, then that will be accounted for.
Look, I don't really see what you are arguing about. It's a completely rational approach for expensing any purchase of a player. If you buy a player for £10m on a 5 year contract, then it makes perfect sense to expense that out at £2m a year. That isn't conjecture, it's an accounting technique for an intangible asset that will not have any residual value at the end of the 5 year period (a free transfer). If some value happens to be realized during that period, then that will be accounted for.