If we give an ageing geezer these wages, it does become our problem, because we're creating this divide, thus potentially rendering something unsustainable a reality. It's one thing giving Ronaldo what he wants because of the marketing and publicity it entails, and it's another matter entirely giving an ageing Luis Fucking Suarez insane wages so he can earn his last big paycheck.
If you work for a company, and you are that company's star performer, and an older less productive shitcunt comes in and makes more than you, I'm sure you'd be singing a different tune.
Suarez got his last contract extension (and salary of 23M gross) back in 2016, where he scored almost 40 goals and 20 assists for the season, for a team with a much higher revenue than us. At that time he was arguably the 3rd best striker in the world behind Ronaldo and Messi. Is Dybala in that ballpark? We never give such wages, Ronaldo being the exception and rightly so. We gave Higuain 7.5M at his peak, we gave Dybala a raise to match that shortly after, and only recently gave guys like De Ligt, Rabiot, Ramsey that much due to the new tax laws.
If Suarez comes with 10M wages (which would be a pay cut to his current salary), he would still be the cheapest option out there and depending on his physical condition, probably the best as well (in terms of us signing a backup striker). He's one of the biggest stars in football and would be a short term option, while Dybala would get an extension until 2024 or 2025. Dybala should be able to understand that much. Remember when we gave 33yo Dani Alves 4M while AS who just came off a fantastic season was making some 2M? Cuadrado wasn't making that much either. Or when we gave Can 5M while Pjanic was our highest paid mid at 5.5M? Or when Bonucci came back on 5M while Chiellini was getting 3M. Or in reverse, we recently got a barcelona starter for 3M wages, while we have benchwarmers here making 6M or 7M... I'm not saying all these were justified, but if we just went around giving everyone raises because our newest addition is making more, we'd be in a pretty bad situation now. Dybalas contact negotiations started before Suarez was even on the map, and 10M was always a fair and natural raise from his current salary. With bonuses, that's still 2nd best to only Ronaldo, so I don't see a problem at all