You don’t tend to bid and have an offer accepted if you want someone else more. Because if the player accepted you’d pull out of the deal and ruffle a lot of feathers. So that point doesn’t seem like it is right
It is perfectly reasonable to at least raise an eyebrow at being beaten to signings by Ipswich because it can easily be interpreted as meaning we aren’t going to win any competition for a player where another premier league club is interested unless we offer a disproportionate salary or guarantee game time that others won’t. Not the most ideal of positions
Of course this might not actually mean this. But it doesn’t take too many steps to get to that position and I’m not sure it even takes a particularly negative mindset to at least have that thought
