technically there is a penalty for firing players, but it is not as obvious. you take a hit in the fan survey under the category "I am familiar with the star players, and am not afraid that they will be transferred." i personally think this part of the fan survey has problems due to the fact that apparently it doesn't start going back up for a long time after selling. case in point - i haven't sold anyone for almost a month yet i am still at 2 1/2 balls in this category... a similar thing happened last season, though i was not paying enough attention to get the exact numbers.