Sorry, I am not intending to join a peeing contest on who is correct with his / her assumptions.
It is obvious that something went wrong and that the help of a "second" person on the side of ATC might have delivered more satisfying results.
But once again it appears also that "the native language " problem may have played a role, in addition to the probable use of non standard phraseology.
As was said before the results drawn into the coming Incident report will be interesting.