Absolutely no doubt that's what we're doing. It's a classic Txiki bit of bartering - make sure the player only wants to come to you, then drive the price down by waiting, drip feeding information out to the press, and generally acting like you're not that bothered.
In general terms I have no problem with the club wanting to get the best deal possible for themselves. However I'm both surprised and a little disappointed that with Pep coming in this summer, someone higher up than Txiki & Soriano hasn't said "listen lads, go get the deals done early so Pep has got everyone he wants in for pre season - don't worry too much about haggling".
Valuations are loose things, but we're really not talking about outlandish ridiculous ones. Stones at 50 million vs 40 million ? Sane difference the same ? For me closing those deals is MUCH more important this summer than in any previous one. I also think at some point it begins to reflect badly from the players' point of view because they start thinking "well how badly do they want me".
Anyway maybe I'm just being impatient. Lets see what happens over the weekend and next week.