Watch a recent video of man city director football discussing this precise issue of players running down contract to get better pay & sign on fees from new club due to there’s no transfer fee paid to old club, he made a good point that’s it’s also a gamble for the player too , as he’s hasn’t a any contract line up & if he gets a serious injury like ACL in his last season, he gets nothing at all , all to lose.
Probably that’s reason lots of players take it easy in last season to avoid serious injury.