Final Year UG looking for recruiting guidance

Hello everyone,

thank you for taking the time to look at this post, I appreciate any opinions and guidance.

A bit on my situation: 
I will now enter my final year of UG at a "T1" UK target  with top grades and am a bit lost regarding what path to pursue for future recruiting. I unfortunately did not land an SA in London for my penultimate year (made lots of mistakes and learned lots) but rather an RX OC in a continental Europe office which the firm ultimately, to my frustration, moved to Q3 2027 instead of 2026 which was what I applied for. As this happened late in the recruitment cycle, I was quite lucky to still find an M&A internship with a smaller boutique that has good dealflow in the same city.

Ultimately, I would like to work in London and ideally also start my career there (M&A or RX). The RX OC is a seat where I believe I could learn tons because they're basically drowning in mandates but working in London is a top priority for a variety of reasons, from personal to professional. If the seat was in London, I wouldn't even think about it as I believe the internship would provide a top notch learning curve.

My current outlook (opinions and advice appreciated!):
From what I understand, the best option for me is to apply to SA 27 as a final year for those banks in London that do accept that, and beyond that try to apply for OCs in London from Q4 2027 onwards with the option of then pursuing a master for 28/29 as a backstop to get access to traditional recruiting pipelines if needed. The alternative here would be to apply for 27/28 masters, however the OC would overlap with start dates in that case. In the case I do get an SA for next summer that is substantially better than the RX OC, I would kindly ask to move that OC to Q4, allowing me to do both internships. I was also thinking of directly asking the RX OC to be moved to Q4 so I am not working behind the firm's back and being transparent about it (also since that would allow me to transparently leverage that offer for SA 27 recruiting). From my experience with HR there, they seemed quite nice about providing the offer holders some flexibility (given this is so far out they haven't even started recruiting for the slot I have the offer for) and I presume asking won't hurt the relationship. How would I frame that request?

I have also heard from my friends in London that their SA classes are actually predominantly filled with final years and masters students which surprised me, is this becoming more normal and accepted by banks?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and sharing your advice - I really appreciate your thoughts as I haven't been able to find relevant information given this situation is a bit unique with the OC offer in a different country...

Regards,
anxious student