My gut feeling is that the club know that what they offer Murphy will be substantially lower than his current wages. Hence the need to tie up Burge ASAP. Then hope no one offers Murphy anything better.
Reliable on four other things so far.
Predicted the three year contract bit a weekend before it came out.
I have no reason to doubt and to be honest the clause makes total sense
It would have to take some really appalling owners for fans to hope they lose court cases against the Council.
To be fair though most people see the difference between a custodian of your club (who it seems does not care)and the club itself.