I'm managing Man City and they sold him to Man Utd before they hired me. I had a good first season finishing third and winning the UEFA Cup equivalent. Man Utd had a poor season, finishing 8th, and only qualifying for the UEFA Cup because the Premiership won the Fair Play draw. They also sacked Aguirre after two-thirds of the last campaign had passed, hiring Hitzfeld. Johnson's status is now listed as squad rotation.

I thought it would be a cakewalk and my whole transfer strategy is based on purchasing him. Man Utd have even accepted an offer at a reasonable price. But he refuses to consider even silly wages. I checked his personal preferences and only just discovered that Man City isn't listed as a favorite club (it's Leeds, but this is wrong, no?) I've got a month, maybe more if he doesn't play in the Cup qualifiers, so what's the best way to go about this short of fiddling with an editor?

happens a lot, even when players at big clubs know they won't be playing a whole lot(etc sidwell, lassana diarra, alvero arbeloa), they wont leave the big clubs because they want their reputation and ridiculously high wages(damn you sidwell, wigan ain't enough for you? )

Sign a different player?

I got lucky. I reloaded a save game, Man Utd offered him to me in a player exchange (Naldo had been hankering for a move anyway) and that seemed to do the trick.