According to Jimmy Burns, author and Spanish football specialist, the response from a senior Santander player was that the Racing chairman –a Real Madrid supporter – had already offered them a win bonus of 1000 pesetas. Says Burns: “It was perhaps just as well that O’Connell left the matter to rest there, for to have pursued the conversation with an offer of a counter bonus (or bribe) may have led to another abrupt closure on his career, and a critical chapter in the history of Spanish football would have subsequently turned out very differently.”