Yes, but all Cortese had to do was convene a press conference in early/mid January with him, Adkins and chamberlain to reiterate, and make it 100% clear, that chamberlain was going nowhere.
He could have nipped the speculation in the bud (again) but decided to leave the press to pedal their speculation throughout the transfer window.
Yes, I know he had already made it clear in December but he should have overtly reiterated it whennthe newspaper articles hit fever pitch in January
IMHO of course