alphabet_king - 6/6/2017 16:31
RazorC - You really are putting two and two together and making 5 here.
Arsenal in the premier league and have very different pre-season schedules. The bloke will be joining them when their pre-season training starts. Their pre-season starts in July because:
1) The premier league season finished on the 21st May and our season finished on 30th April.
2) Their full season (FA Cup) didn't finish until the 27th May (a month after ours).
3) The majority of their players have also been on international duty since the season ended (still on international duty at the moment)
4) Their proper season doesn?t start until a week after ours too.
Your knowledge of football manager is admirable, I wish I still had the time to play - but it?s simply not always the real world. Your assumption is a huge leap in logic from the actual facts. And anyway, you are muddling the 3 different aspects of Official Contract Ending, Pre-season Training and actually announcing a deal.
Aside from the legalities of when the contract actually ends and when the club starts paying for them, or can register them formally, or even when they can start pre-season training and are suitably insured, the key fact is that as per the bosman rules, players can agree a pre-contract with another club for a free transfer if the players' contract with their existing club has six months or less remaining,. There is absolutely no reason why this could not be published as and when the agreement is made. It's not up to the club he's leaving - they have no say. Just to be sure, a pre-contract is just as legally binding too ? so it?s nothing to do with that either. Of course for actual transfers between clubs, Nick GFC has been on here before and said that the way it works is that there is usually an agreement as to when it?s published by both clubs. But that?s for proper transfers, not the end of contract. Also it?s worth adding that Northampton have already released a press note that his contract is not being renewed (due to the international issues).
A more sensible assumption to make that doesn?t rely upon a huge leap of logic would be the simple fact that the international clearance (work permit) is taking a few days, we are waiting for him to return from International Duty, or that we are simply waiting for a couple of other signings to get over the line to announce a few at the same time.