When, exactly, the Sounders were trying to sign the former Spain international, the fact that we're only hearing about it now is telling.
Silly season is just gearing up. Rumors of inbound players will surely start to fly. Some of those signings will come to fruition (Román Torres was a recent fanciful example) and a lot more don't (oh man, remember when we were signing Diego Forlan before he was really old?).
But today we got a reminder that a lot of silly season happens behind closed doors and we don't really hear anything about it until years later, if we hear about it all.