It depends. Does being asked a general question about whether you'd fancy 'the job', by someone you used to work with, and who isn't employed by the club, constitute a tapping up? I'd say not, personally.
If you look at the write up in the South Wales Argus it gets a bit vague on facts, then it appears as you say an ex Playing Colleague "approached him"(JE)
- under what circumstances though, chance meeting, phone call or Pub? I have a feeling that big Dave might be rubbing his hands in anticipation of .................
Not sure of JE's part in all this - why didn't he report to his BoD
first rather than break it to local media. Best to let BoD deal with the situation first.
Is he in it for other reasons?