It's an option to buy though... If he doesn't perform, we send him back to Southampton. If he does perform but they don't want to sell him cheap enough to us, we send him back. Like with Aquilani, Borriello, Bendtner, Anelka. We didn't exercise the option to buy on any of those players.
If we exercise the 20 million option to buy in the summer, I think most of us will be upset, but realistically, the chances of us offering anything over 15 million come summer are slim to none. It's a low risk, potentially high reward move.