Southampton couldn't bring Tom Fellows to St. Mary's a year ago, and now stare at the likelihood of him moving to Everton for an unchanged price-tag.
From the surface, Championship outfits hold Premier League clubs in high regard but the truth is they too have strict reservations when it comes to doing transfer business. I know, Southampton's lacklustre enthusiasm towards Leeds United can be brought into the discussion but the Saints are primarily concerned with getting the fair price for their core players.
Nothing is wrong with that kind of cold selling response but turning down one non-rival only to entertain the other at a similar asking price is totally unheard of. However, transfer tactics keep on evolving every off-season and Southampton might become the first ones to taste this biased-negotiation trend.
So, last year, the Saints went down the Championship path to scout some up-and-coming talents and didn't shy away from admiring West Brom's forward Tom Fellows. As pointed out by the BBC, Southampton stretched their pockets to cross the eight-figure fee mark but apparently that failed to attract the Baggies.
Saints will hope for an on-field revenge against West Brom
Since then, Fellows has operated on a different level in the second-division and as such, his valuation should have doubled, if not tripled as compared to Southampton's proposal.
Now, comes the confusing part with TeamTalk mentioning the Baggies can opt to part ways with Fellows for quite the same transfer paycheck.
Guess what? It's Everton again frustrating the St. Mary's faithful in any manner they can.
And who knows, maybe their fans will start throwing jibes at Southampton for getting Fellows without overpaying on him. After all, their boss David Moyes never hesitates from laughing at the Saints, no matter whether he is leading a side who were previously humiliated twice by one of Southampton's weakest lineups in the past few seasons.
Let's hope this biased behaviour from West Brom fuels Will Still and the players to complete a Championship double over them.