I've heard this numerous times and if this was someone "in the know" then surely they would know what Astbury told the group, that he made up his mind last year and the club tried to get him to stay. It was Astbury's decision to leave not ours (I don't begrudge him that btw), but the below statement suggests it was our decision to move him on, which it wasn't. So essentially, if we wanted an old key defender, then we would try and keep Astbury for one more year - and we did, so that suggests that we DO want an old key defender.
"Heard nothing about Talia. If we wanted an old key defender we would've kept Astbury for one more year."