I agree, the Joe Cole loan deal is very strange. It is very rare for an english player to move abroad in europe let alone to a french club. They obviouly see him as a makeshift replacement for Gervinho.
Regarding your other point its the fault of the clubs paying ridiculous wages in the first place. When Abrahmovic took over at Chelsea years ago they signed 'steady' premiership players ie, Cole, Parker, Bridge etc. I believe simply to stop other teams from having them. Man City then carried this on with Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Milner and again Bridge. They played these players too much money to be a part of the squad and now other teams are unable to afford their outrageous wage demands and so the players are content to just stay where they are.
My fear for the future is that unless they are young and need experience then Premiership players will not be accessible to teams in lower divisions and more and more aging players will start to ply their trade abroad to get their careers back on track.
I also blame the increase of average foreign players in the game and the increase in the number of games played over the season resulting in the need for a large squad just incase first team players are unavailable (but these can be saved for another night).
Rant over
