Sheffield Wednesday: What EFL regulations say about contracts offered to Owls quartet

Wednesday revealed when they announced their retained list that Massimo Luongo, Jack Hunt, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Joe Wildsmith were all being asked to stay at Hillsborough beyond their current deals – which expire at the end of this month.

But there is a finite amount of time that the players have to respond to the offer, according to the English Football League regulations, which state that any offer of reengagement will lapse automatically at the end of this month.

The regulations read, in part, “The Player must notify in writing the Club holding his registration within one month of the date on which notification of the said terms of re engagement were sent, whether or not he accepts their offer of re engagement. If the Player has not replied in writing to the Club's offer of reengagement by 30 June, the offer shall automatically lapse.”

They also go on to say, “The EFL position is that after the one-month period set out in the first sentence of Regulation 67.4, the Club may withdraw the offer at which point the Player will not be able to unilaterally accept that offer, leaving the Club free to pursue alterative options for new players without the risk of the player accepting. If the offer is not withdrawn, it will then lapse automatically on 30 June at which point gain the Player will not be able to unilaterally accept.”

Of course negotiations can be drawn out further, and can take longer to finalise, but Wednesday will be eager to make sure that the four aforementioned players have given them an answer before June 20th when they return for preseason and the work begins for the campaign ahead.

Moore is currently in the process of trying to replace the 10+ players that are leaving this summer, and his job will certainly be made more difficult if Luongo, Hunt, Mendez-Laing and Wildsmith decide to move on, giving him more holes to plug.

Wednesday have already been linked with a whole host of new players, with the Owls boss saying recently that ‘positive’ talks have been had.

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