1. There are two types of loan, which I shall refer to as "short-term" and "long-term".
2. A short-term loan is for a period between 28 and 93 days, including the start date and the finishing date. (All loans are for a specific number of days, and technically there is no such thing as "a month's loan".) The player cannot be recalled by his original club during the first 28 days (although it's possible that such a recall is allowed for goalkeepers in an extreme case), but can be afterwards regardless of the original period of the loan. A club can have up to eight players on short-term loan during the season, but no more than four at any one time.
3. Short-term loans which subsequently become permanent transfers do not count to the limit of eight such loans during a season.
4. A club is allowed to sign the same player on short-term loan more than once during a season. However, the total number of days on loan cannot exceed 93. Furthermore, a club can extend the length of a short-term loan as long as the total length is not more than 93 days.
5. A long-term loan can only apply to a player aged under 23 on the 30th June before the start of the season (so for 2003/04, a player on long-term loan has to have been born on or after 1st July, 1980). The loan must commence betwen 1st July and 31st December, and must run to the end of the season. A player on a long-term loan cannot be recalled by his original club unless he is permanently transferred to another club. A club can have up to four players on long-term loan during the season.
6. No club can send out more than six players on long-term loans during a season.
7. A club can take a maximum of four loan players (short-term and long-term combined) from any one club during a season.
8. A club is able to name a maximum of five loan players (short-term and long-term combined) in the 16 players listed on the team sheet for a game.
9. Under extreme circumstances, a club is allowed to take a goalkeeper on loan even if it infringes some of the regulations listed here.
10. The club receving the loaned player must play at least half of his wages during the period.
11. Any short-term loan to or from another country must last for 93 days. Note that Welsh clubs playing in the Football League or other parts of the English pyramid do not count as being in another country, but other Welsh clubs, and those in Scotland or Northern Ireland, do count as being in another country.
(NB This very important rule applied in 2001/02 but I believe that it no longer applies unless the number 465 has increased.) A club may use up to 465 loan days each season. Short-term loans which subsequently become permanent transfers do not count to the limit of the number of loan days during a season.
(A rule changed for 2003/04) A Premiership club can take players on loan from other Premiership clubs, but only a maximum of two at a time, a maximum of four per season and only during the transfer window (previously Premiership clubs were not allowed to take players on loan from another Premiership club).
12. A rule that I am not exactly sure about came to light during 2003/04 when Oldham Athletic attempted to sign a player on loan from Nantwich Town. They were not allowed to do so, supposedly because of Football Association rules, because Nantwich were too low down in the English Pyramid system. Nantwich play at level 8 of the pyramid, which is the same level as the Hellenic League Premier Division, Ryman Division 2 and the Combined Counties Premier Division. This seems a strange rule as there appears to be no equivalent bar from taking players on loan from foreign clubs at a similar or lower level (such as the Scottish Premier League).
So, we can have 4 long term (Drenthe, Straq, Dier) and 4 short term (Donovan), but we can only include 5 in a matchday squad.
I think that Moyes is saying to expect loans because you have to pay silly money to buy anyone decent in January and he'd get better value for money in the summer.
