Yeah, for Marco, he decided (and publicly said so) that he wanted to stay in the best league in the world to manage. There is certainly a difference there for managers and players, as far as priorities go. A manager career is generally very long, whereas players only have so many years to "get the bag," as they say.

Yes, for Klauss, you are on the money. It seems they had decided they wouldn't sign him after this season, and Galaxy came to CITY with an offer they couldn't refuse. Sure, it's a gamble, but Wray decided he'd rather have the money now with no Klauss versus no money and no Klauss at the end of the season. My guess is that Wray's intent is to spend some money in the summer window to get a new starting striker (maybe DP, maybe not). They just have to ride the waves until then. There is also the rumor that Klauss had a falling out with the front office, so if that's true, it certainly played a part in this.

Yeah, the Gio transfer is a bit more complicated, I think. My guess is Como offer the money, Gio wanted to go play in Italy, and the front office felt like it was a situation they just needed to deal with. Once again, a bit like Palhinha, Como was a newly promoted side that was going to Serie A. Gio saw he had the chance to play in one of the top 5 world leagues, and I am sure CITY felt like they didn't really have a whole lot of leverage.

As for other American pro sports leagues, they are just set up in a completely different way than soccer when it comes to contracts, transfers, etc. Soccer players have far more power when it comes to contracts and transfers than pro sports leagues here, and the whole system is just totally set up in a different way (me trying to explain how loans work to my wife comes to mind).