work permit issue

Johngee...what are your thoughts on the work permit? A formality?

I can't really remember many players being denied moves down to a work permit issue- surely with a big signing such as this it would be something the club would have taken into consideration already?

Winston Reid..... 👍 perfect and out of contract at end of the season!

Should be formality -if I recollect it was a limitation introduced by UK to prevent "unskilled* labour from migrating under new EEC countries. But takes a few days because it is government department paperwork not FA

Would love Reid but there's no chance he would consider Leicester with the likes of Arsenal interested, he's holding out for a bigger move

The Kramaric deal is done with the work permit a formality, it just means he won't make it in time for the Villa game but if there was any doubt he wouldn't get one the club wouldn't announce the agreement

They are saying that Kramaric is unavailable this weekend while a work permit is being granted

To automatically qualify Kramaric would have had to make 75% of Croatias international games over 2 years to fulfil the bracket of enriching the UK game.

As he is too young to be able to show such a record he will be granted a permit on the basis of his potential attributes as a top level footballer.

I always think the work permit business for footballers at this level is stupid! He has signed a contract so it's not like he is coming into the UK without a job lined up, and it's a well payed job that he has got I'm sure!

The problem is that he falls into an awkward loophole. My understanding is that if he was coming from, say, Germany or France, he would have automatic rights. If, on the other hand, he was coming from Nigeria or Peru, he'd either have to be a teenage player with a dispensation to join the academy or be an established player in his country's senior side (as BS says, he'd have to be getting picked for above a fixed percentage of matches).

Kramaric is just an awkward case. As a 23-year-old who has been playing in the Europa League, he's plainly not an underage prospect but a proper grown-up footballer. However, he's young enough to have only been in the senior Croatia side for a few months, and therefore can't jump through the 'games over the last two years' hoop. And because he's Croatian, he's subject to transitional status regarding his rights as an EU citizen (which is basically just part of the current round of immigration politics).

I'd be amazed if a permit is refused, or even delayed for very long. The lad is patently a valid acquisition, with masses of age group caps leading up to his graduation to the full national side, and is also not even coming from outside the EU. Plain common sense says he qualifies – but because the rules say someone actually has to make that decision, a bureaucrat somewhere will hem and haw and polish his rubber stamp for a few days just to be seen to be going through the requisite motions.

(Never forgetting that, as Voltaire may have been the first to point out, 'common sense' is in fact not very common).

just hope neil warnock is not on that panel

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Ha! Yes indeed. My Baggies fanatic mate told me the other day "I hear we are trying to offload Ideye for £2m, but can't find any takers".