Yeah that's been noted a number of times, it was just the Vital football article mentioned the £10m payment, so of course there may be no truth in it, though Macca has a habit of exaggerating...
I would find it surprising if, given that suggests the budget would be £15-17m, that McNally would have told Lambert to aim for 17th- that's a huge amount of money and, tbh, not really believable. Great if true though! I just think it sounds like the author of the article has had a good look at the accounts and is quite reliable.
On transfers- how would people feel about getting Lovenkrands on a year-long contract? Decent player, good competition and education for Pilkington I think