Quick question about player poaching

I have a 16 year old CM at Chelsea, it says in his profile that he has provisinally agreed to sign a contract on 1/3/2010, but Man U have made a bid to sign him and i'll be due 2mil compensation. However, I want to keep him but I cant offer him a contract or anything, is that normal?

edit: Being an idiot, he was already considering a contract offer from me.

Can this be locked?

Cheers

I have a 16 year old CM at Chelsea, it says in his profile that he has provisinally agreed to sign a contract on 1/3/2010, but Man U have made a bid to sign him and i'll be due 2mil compensation. However, I want to keep him but I cant offer him a contract or anything, is that normal?

Yes it is, once a player who is below 17 has agreed to sign a contract provisionally with your club or any club then you can't offer them a new one until that contract has started (in this case on 1/3/2010), the good thing though is that usually it is very hard to buy players who has already agreed provisionally contract. So if you lucky your player will say something like this:

"John Doe accepts Chelsea offer, Chelsea's John Doe has committed his future to the club by agreeing terms on a new contract"

Most of the cases when you try to buy a player who is under 17 and already has agreed to sign contract with his clubs say this so hopefully same will be with your player.