It's obviously nothing to do with the media as this has been an open secret for some time. We wouldn't have wasted our time for this long and would have simply gone for Seabourne earlier.
I suspect Ward was #1 target but Seaborne became #1 target. Why? Don't know, but I'm confident it would have been a footballing decision (and I include player contracts, medicals etc in that) rather than a reaction to the story being in the press.