Quote: supercat "If signed now you would have either had to have paid for him or tapped him up before tampering deadline or had some sort of special agreement with us (which i doubt).'"
Not at all. Players can decide to leave clubs and seek a new contract elsewhere. Their agent will tell the club that this is the case. In that scenario it is in the clubs best interests to let the player sort out his future. Most player re-negotiations will take place, on a prelimenary level, before the start of their final year of contract. Clubs need to know who will be staying and who going when planning for the following years salary cap. Especially as having to buy out a players contract would reduce their cap spend for the remainder of time left on the contract.
It would be remarkably naive to assume that most players have not got their future at least planned at this stage of the season. The only players who the anti-tampering deadline would apply to is players who the club hopes to keep but fears may have their heads turned by a big offer from another club.