i'm really confused to how they work.
i've heard you can buy a player without a work permit and then send him to one of your feeder clubs till he is eligible for a wp.
however, everytime i try and buy a player (franco di santo in this case) his work permit appeal gets rejected and thats the end of it and i dont even get the option to send him to one of my feeder clubs.

so could someone explain to me how this works?

You need to have a feeder club where the arrangement is to send you players to gain a work permit in order to complete the deal. The countries you can get a link to aviod WP regulations are Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain. Once a player has spent a certain number of years on one of these countries, they will be legible to take up citizenship for this country.