Talking to an unhappy player

This really annoyed me.

I have a player who I think is pretty good, but who had a couple of really poor performances. Because of this, he's been out of the team for a few weeks, barring the odd substitute appearance. So, as you might expect, he comes to me because he's worried about not being in my plans. This is where it gets annoying. It's fine that he wanted to talk about it. I understand that. But I had no option whatsoever to tell him I'll try to get him back in the team or offer him some playing time or even tell him he's still in my plans. The only options I had were either to tell him he can get stuffed or tell him politely I'll try to loan him out or find him a new club. There was absolutely nothing that would allow me to tell him he's still in my plans.

This is terrible. I'm sure it used to be possible. Where did it go?

I thought you could tell them you would give them a chance over the next few weeks, probably a stupid question but did you check the options for each tone?

Yeah I thought normally you could say something like "I'm prepared to give you a chance in the first team but I expect you to work hard to stay there" also there is usually an option to say "I think we should discuss this a later date" or something similiar.

Have you had this conversation with him before that might make it now unavailable?

I think we did talk about a year ago (in-game).

All I know is, the option to say I'll offer him game time wasn't there.

I had the same for a while, not being able to say that option, though did see it in conversations far later in the game.