An 'option' to buy. Not an 'obligation' to buy. Important to note the difference, mate.
He categorically was not purchased 1 or 2 years prior, he signed his contract for Barcelona in January 2018. He made his debut in February 2018. He was out the door by August 2018.
Well of course Brands is going to say that we've been watching him for ages, he's hardly going to admit that we're signing him off the strength of a world cup and the fact he plays for Barcelona, is he?
At best, if what you say is true, we extensively scouted a player for years and he turned out to be absolute horse-pish. At worst, we took a gamble on a player based on 4 games and took another Barcelona cast-off in the hope it would pay off, it hasn't.