You can't approach to sign players with under 6 months left on their contract

I have been having the same challenge and thought that they would fix it this time around which they didnt. The entire focus is on FUT and Career Mode is getting ignored again. Interestingly, once someone else started trying to negotiate pre-arrival terms with someone, then I could "Approach to Sign" them. But by then most of the good ones had already negotiated terms with their current teams.