My gut reaction to this is exactly the same as to CH's sacking.
I understand why it's happened.
But it's a shame it had to happen.
Anything beyond that is getting a little out of hand.
But when told to give posters time to "grieve" well the gloves are coming off.
The board would/should have said words to the effect of:-
'We've got this deal, is it a goer or not?'
Assuming they did, Potter obviously said
'Yep he can go, he's surplus'.
I guess in the interview stage the board could have said:-
'We're attempting to offload AK, or, AK would like to...
Maybe having spent x months doing his homework and after listening to the opinions of the board when this deal was first mooted Potter hadn't seen enough from AK to make him think he's worth keeping.