If I was being cynical, I'd suggest that's the exact reason why.
They knew something was up, but they wanted to protect the asset.
Maybe not in terms of him staying, but in terms of media coverage and him finding another club it could only help.
But the public didn't take matter into their own hands now did they? Arnold and Greenwood have both said directly they take full responsibility for this decision. Are they lying? Did bigman6969 on twitter make that decision?
And how do you explain the fact that there are two so-called mobs out there, who made that decision to pick between then?
All of that is of course rhetorical, they don't need answering. But so you at least see what I'm saying? It can be said "we don't know" to pretty much all aspects of this case. Especially the things we don't know for a fact.
But one of the things we do know is who has taken responsibility for this. So if we are to take the CPS at their word and we are to accept we don't know all the facts, why can we not take the people directly involved at their word?
ChatGPT is a hell of a thing