English Work Permit Q?

[nms1987]

I've never managed in England, and their work permit system seems crazy to me from an IRL point of view.

I, managing in Portugal in FM24 (game imported from FM 23 fwiw), just got a loan offer for a promising young Congolese/Belgian player of mine from an English Championship club.  This player in the last 3 years played 23 games in the Slovenian League, then I bought him and he spends half a year (11 games) in the Portuguese Liga 3 with my B team and then a half season (18 games) on loan with a different club in the top Portuguese League and then last season he plays 32 games on loan in Scottish Premiership.  All of this activity occurred in FM23.

Now I move the game to FM24 for a new season and I get the loan offer out of the blue from this English Championship team, but the red box at the bottom has the disclaimer that he won't be able to get an English work permit.  Hasn't played 60% of his nation's games in last 12 months (he has 2 Congo caps) and doesn't have enough points from "league matches, level of league, ect" to qualify.

Is this normal for a guy with games in Portuguese and Scottish top level to not qualify?  If I was to ever manage an English club how on earth would I ever get foreign players?  In real life obviously lots of players move from Portugal and Scotland to Premier League and Championship.  Is this a bug, or how it is supposed to be?

[Dreambuilder]

Even if he dont get work permit theres a new rule now that english clubs can get 2-4 foreign players anyway. Called ESC or something