Yes, with the difference that at BVB the actual people talk publicly. Zorc talks publicly, in interviews or, like last fall, as part of the preseason tour press conference.
If he says, in a summer interview, that there's a price and a deadline to a Sancho sale which is the departure for the training camp, and then at the training camp, to a camera, or a reporters mic, "the deadline has passed and Sancho is now staying for sure", how on earth don't you understand that the margin on how to walk back from that has become very, very, very slim?
This is one of their main stars we're talking about.
Of course they were not going to just sell after that, unless maybe if the price is actually higher, or spinnable to be much higher than what was asked. And even then it's not actually on, as a thing to walk back on. To be sure, Watzke and Zorc talked crap before that their actions then contradicted, but in this clarity?
Not taking this kind of statement seriously is just crazy. It was serious. And that's an estimation you could have believed German fans to make, quite simply.