Tolson appointment makes much more sense to me now after that statement.
GR was perfectly happy with the management team, his opinion is open to challenge, but given that would appear to be the case the rest of it makes sense. Lee resigned, Neil didn't, so do we sack Neil because Lee resigned - no because that would be unfair on Neil - perfectly reasonable statement and approach.
So now we either get a new manager in from nowhere - GR was happy with LS so won't have been sounding out any other managers - or we promote Neil to provide continuity, which if GR was happy with the management isn't a problem as far as he is concerned.
It also explains all the stuff in the original statement about injuries.
Clearly if the original statement had included the word 'resigned' it would have been much clearer from the start.
Personally I would have given Neil the job until we got a new number one in place rather than till the end of the season given Neil is on record as saying he didn't see himself as a manager.