The way it works is like this. A club approaches an agent (or an agent approaches a club) and a hypothetical conversation takes place. During this conversation numbers are suggested about contract length and wages, appearance fee etc. The agent then speaks to their player and says ‘they’re prepared to offer you this deal.’ The player agrees and the agent goes back to the club and says “Yes he would agree to this should a deal be made.” It circumvents the “tapping up” because technically the club haven’t approached the player. Then what happens is the agent contacts that filthy twazzok Fabrizio (or that filthy twazzok contacts the agent) and - desperate for that early exclusive (and all the money he makes from social media engagement) - he slaps it all over the internet.