Oh come on, are you really that naive? We sold Ian Wright back in 1992 and our chairman at the time, Ron Noades, remarked that all the player's personal terms were agreed before Arsenal made a formal approach.
That was 30 years ago.
With the power of agents these days it must be 10 times worse.
A simple of conversation via the agent to say if we were to offer x a week would that be acceptable etc is all it takes.

That was my understanding also . Another club cannot contact a player or agent without permission from his parent club .

Officially maybe. But I’m sure it goes on all the time.

Not just at club/agent level either - players sound each other out when off on international duty as well, not as much now there are so many overseas players maybe but it still happens.

But isn't this our modus operandi now? Hope he has an excellent season and that we get a bidding war for him next year. Who knows, by then the Saudi's may be in for players of his age/quality. Then reinvest wisely

It is the player recruitment (plus deep pockets, of course) that is the key to a club's success more than the actual coaching of the side.

Tapping up is one thing, but it would be madness to big for a player without first knowing they were up for a move.