When did he say that? can you link the article with the quotes, I find it hard to believe any manager would think it's normal to casually phone up another player to ask if they wanna join and selling their project to them before anything nevermind arranging some private, secretly concealed "meeting they had in Blackpool".
He said it during a press conference at the end of last season, in reference to it being normal in Germany and not a big deal, but him now observing all the rules (since the van sink thing). I can't find it as it wasn't really a focus or remarkable.