Something weird's going on...

Here's the scenario:

I signed a top striker in the January window after he had been unsettled at his previous club. I won't reveal who, in case it's seen as a spoiler... Unfortunately he's taken ages to settle in, and hasn't scored in something like 15 hours of football. Over this time, I've become increasingly frustrated with him, and this ended up with me telling him I was putting him in the reserves, which caused him to throw his toys out of the pram.

I immediately regretted my decision and changed his squad status back to First Team and have tried to persist with him so he can play his way out of his goal drought. However, on his personal screen, he had a concern at lack of first team football, even though he played most matches.

After a month of this, he handed in a transfer request, citing my failure to honour the promise of first team football. I refused the request and now his concerns seem to have vanished and he's pleased to have joined my club.

This seems weird to me: I can see that I probably mishandled the interaction and allowed my frustration with him to cloud my judgement. I can also accept that the player is highly strung and needs careful handling. But me changing his squad status seemed to trigger unhappiness at first team football even though he didn't miss any games, and then he flips back to 'normal' when I refuse his transfer request. Is this a bug?