I am not saying there are related party transactions or off the book payments. It's a split salary under two separate contracts. I don't see any problem with that as long as the amounts involved can be justified under both contracts. I would imagine that the club got legal and tax clearance before signing anyway.
It's apparent from the emails that the club was involved in negotiating the contracts and, it seems, in some payments. We can't pretend the implications of the emails don't exist. They have to be covered by the defence. But none of that bothers me particularly.
When I was getting a split salary, I wasn't negotiating separately with the three group companies. I negotiated with one, the lead company, and they handled the rest with the other companies. It's all normal to me.
All imho, of course. Feel free to disagree.