It was a done deal. He was in Aberdeen to finalise the move. It got held up because Sunderland agreed compo with Aberdeen for McInnes and Aberdeen didn't want to sign anyone if they were changing managers, it was then held up as Sunderland approached Grayson a few days after, Preston approached Neil and when the May transfer was mentioned, he asked them to keep hold of him. Everything was agreed on the Thursday, for some reason he didn't go up until the Saturday. If he'd gone up a day or two earlier he'd be an Aberdeen player.