Thinking about it, on ERTE out here some bars have taken staff back on whilst keeping the others on ERTE. I guess if we sign new players before July we can just pay them.
You absolutely can sign players even whilst using the furlough scheme - fans just love a conspiracy theory.
There was pretty widespread condemnation of Barrow back in January where they just furloughed a load of their out of favour players & signed new ones to replace them.
Unethical yes but perfectly legal.