You'll probably find we're the ones who've made it public to up the fee/generate further interest.
We've been publicly generating interest all season by bigging the fella up.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is Ashleys way of getting the fans back for slagging his drinking partner. 'don't sell Cabaye, we'll fackin' show'em Joe'.
Pack of cretinous cunts.
the question is who benefits making this public, us? no not really if anything it hurts us. Arsenal? Makes them look like they're doing something in response to the defeat and wengers on the case to sort it out trust wenger hes about to go on a spending spree blah blah blah
If we've intended to sell him all summer, I'd argue we benefit immensely from having this interest made public because any other interested parties have to either shit or get off the pot.
I happen to think he's the one marked as the sacrificial lamb this year and he's probably also (rightly) pissed that he was sold the dream by Billy Liar (AP) which has turned to shit.
As you can see, I'm hugely cynical when it comes to all matters NUFC these days.
I don't doubt we would make something like this public, just not right before our first game.