[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Is there any reason why we couldn't have taken the year's option on his contract and then made him available for, say, 1 million? Surely we'd have got some takers, and a bit more dosh thrown in too??

I suppose from Pulis' point of view: risk of being stuck with him, interested parties may not be willing to pay us a fee for him/match his current wages

From Mulumbu's point of view he has been an outstanding servant to the club and it would be wrong of us to tie him down to a 1 year deal where he would be sat in the reserves if we couldn't find a taker, it would also deny him a signing on bonus which you can't begrudge him after 6 years of excellent performances

Yup, I see all that - I wouldn't have really expected him to NOT be bought at that price though, and a new club would be getting a top quality, proven PL player at a very cheap price which would enable him to negotiate a good wage too.
Win / win all round, as far as I can see! 

When other clubs know a player's on a one-year option, they'll usually just bide their time for twelve months till he's free.  The only clubs who might be desperate enough to cough up the money this summer would be the promoted sides, and if things fell through with them then it'd be another year on the bench for Youssouf.  Asking a bloke to hinge the next twelve months of his career on whether we could arrange a deal with one of three clubs (who he might not even be interested in playing for) would be harsh on a bloke who's given us his all for six full years.

Great servant, owes us nothing and cost us next to nothing, and he's absolutely earned the right to call it a day here and make his own mind up about his next move.