The club can't win in this situation, can they? They sign him and people go "We need experience, we need big names lalala". We don't sign them, and people are "Oh, we should be signing them, we should be able to afford him etc". There's no middle ground, is there?
So, the possibility exists that the club had looked at him and decided he's not worth pursuing, which is why he's gone to Brentford? It's irrelevant as to whether we can outbid them or not if we're not interested in them. Besides, a left sided midfielder isn't exactly the biggest problem in...