The bloke makes a living out of claiming to know stuff, regardless of whether he does or not.
It’s all carefully choreographed - he’ll very rarely say anything definitive, anything that will ultimately prove him to be right or more frequently wrong. Instead it’s all a nod and a wink; vague stuff that he’ll just brush off at a later date and which keeps the charade going.
There’s absolutely zero chance that he’d say straight up that he hadn’t heard anything on an issue of this importance - he can’t afford to do that - so he simply has to say that he’s seen or heard something from the PL or City that suggests a certain outcome.