Why would anything be made public before an agreement is reached? We got news that our players had signed new contracts not that they had been offered one, then their agent said it wasn't good enough, then they were offered a bit more, and after two or three more rounds of negotiation, they signed; it just doesn't work like that. If there's no agreement, there's no news, no matter how much negotiating happens.
I'm going to speculate as much as you are and suggest maybe he wanted a pay rise last year and was told that they couldn't really afford it but if they stayed up they would have more money and he would get a better deal then, now they've stayed up and they've reneged on the deal. What if you were in a position like that? Personally I would probably request a transfer too.
Now I don't know that that's the case, but it's a possibility which no-one seems to be considering.