As far as I know the total figures on the official accounts are always for entire club staff all the way from the top of the board room down to the tea lady, not just the first team players.
The first team playing staff of course make up for the vast majority of that number but say the loan group players, academy players, coaching staff, directors, scouting staff, women's team and all regular non-playing staff take all put together say 30% of the overall number and it's a very different story already. By that point it's easily conceivable that the numbers from sites like Capology represent the base salaries at close enough ball park accuracy and any bonuses the squad have on their contracts make up for the rest. Sites like that are always to be taken with a rather large pinch of salt but generally speaking they're about the best we can get as long as the salaries are not publicly disclosed.
As for who's making the big money, I don't think anyone claimed we don't have any big earners. From last season's squad I'm sure the likes of Sterling, Nkunku, James, Chilwell, Fofana, Enzo, Caicedo, Cucurella are all on salaries right up there with some of the other top earners in the league. But just because the club have some big earners it still doesn't mean that young players signed from obscurity are all automatically earning top salaries without ever having to prove it first. Take Cole Palmer for example. he signed initially for what was a more reasonable wage with performance related incentives and as soon as he proved he was more than capable of coming up with top level performances he got a major pay rise. That's the way it should be IMO.
The CL participation is a worthy mention and I agree if we were to return to the UCL eventually I'm sure bonuses will raise the number quite a bit further up but as long as the increase is still less than what can be made from participating in it there's no problems.
