Strange, the reference for that statement is a bad link. And the article of that name in Sky Sports doesn't say anything about a statement, and they say in his profile he moved for £26.5m :S

I suppose it doesn't matter anyway considering we never really know what gets bandied about in these things. Carrick a prime example... God knows how much we really paid for him in the end. I'd expect it to be closer to the alleged £18.6m (which includes performance related stuff) than the original £14m, though.

EDIT: Did this post before seeing your edit.