If the club always has the final say, then Kaka would be at Man City, not Real.
Players clearly have a huge say in their transfers, no one's dumb enough to deny that. Usually teams don't even bother negotiating unless they know a player will accept. All they have to do is say the word, and they can call off any transfer they want by refusing to sign the contract. Man City don't just have to pay big fees to the clubs, they have to offer ridiculous wages to entice the players to sign there. No, Robinho didn't want to go to Man City. Then they offered him 200k a week, and he miraculously agreed to sign. Too bad for them that wasn't enough to lure Kaka.
Afellay's sale price doesn't mean shit. Afellay had ALL the leverage in that situation as he could leave for free in 6 months. He was clearly in a position where he could choose his destination and he chose Barca. We'll never know how hard Inter tried to sign him, but his sale price doesn't prove anything. If he wanted Barca, we could have offered 50 mil and it wouldn't have mattered. Afellay could just say "No thanks, I'll leave for free in June and go wherever the fuck I want" and PSV couldn't do a damn thing about it.