Selling a player due to wage demands

This situation is likely going to come up for me in my current save, and it bothers me that there is no real mechanism to express this.

I'm currently Canvey Island in dafuge's challenge, and in my first season in L2. Going pretty well too, hanging onto a playoff spot after 30 games. My star player is Norway's u21 captain, a newgen striker who was prolific for me in the BSP and is to date the top scorer in L2 as well. Problem is he's also the only player in my squad still on a part time contract, as his wage demands are four times what I can offer. A few negotiations have broken down simply because I can't get near what he wants.

Obviously his value is going up, but even if I get promoted I'm not going to be able to afford him, and his part time deal runs out at the end of next season. Logic would say I should offer him out in the off-season, get some CCC clubs interested and get some needed cash into the club's coffers.

Except, he is a favoured personnel of the club. The club and myself are also favourites of his, so if I offer him out the following is going to happen:

"I'm concerned you're trying to force me out and I really want to stay at the club"

My only real option is to reply with...

"The club needs the money and has to sell some players"

Which will 100% lead to...

"Are you just trying to make things worse?"

Of course, after I've wrecked our relationship, he'll be sold and I'll get the fans being upset. So my question is two-fold:

1) Why, especially as a smaller club, do I not have the ability to tell a player that we can't afford him unless his wage demands decrease? (I'm not talking about asking him to take a pay-cut as I'm not doing that)

2) If the fans are upset at losing a club favourite, why do I not get an opportunity to explain the sale?

Cant you go into private chat and ask him to lower his wage demands...just going to check..

yep, under "transfers" there is "ask to reduce wage demand"

Ah, really? I thought it was to ask players at the club to take a wage cut. Either way it is greyed out as he has more than one year on his contract. I'll try it in the off-season methinks.

You can only do that if the club is in a "Poor" financial position and the player has less than 1 year on his contract. If he accepts, you can negotiate a new contract with lower wage. I've found they often accept it, but the player will then be unhappy for being singled out for a wage reduction.

I have a similar problem, the player isnt that good but he wants his wage to be 30k up from 6.5k.

I wish their was an option to tell him he isnt worth that much or is poor value for money.

I had the same problem with Jamil Adam with Woking. When I got in to L2 he wanted about 2.8k a week which was almost a third of my wages budget. He was on a part-time deal with just 12 remaining.

Before the season started I knew the writing was on the wall so I flogged him to Hibs for 400k (his sell on clause) and built a new side. The extra 400k in the coffers also persuaded the Board to increase the wage budget which allowed me to keep other players that wanted decent wages.