Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Here's a totally hypothetical situation:
David Burke identifies five strikers as we know we are going to sell Barnes. Three are thrown out immediately leaving Grabban and Obika on the list.
DB: Who do you want?
OG: Grabban please
NJ: Obika please
Both are pursued but only one landed, the one the head coach really didn't want after all. Having realised this was an error Rodriguez who wasn't even on the original list is added when he becomes available due to being released.
Might be complete bollox of course but the point is Oscar probably has the final say in who we should target, NOT what we should pay them or their other personal terms.
Throw this into your hypothetical situation, that Grabban was offered a better contract at Bournemouth so the runner up suggestion was the one that both manager and assistant agreed on.