On the face of it, I agree.Royalwaster I agree it's a strange way to treat two of our most long serving players ...
Maybe they've not taken the news well and are moping around/being unprofessional? (sounds very out of character for these two though).
Perhaps they are not being forced as a punishment but as a positive way to allow them to play U21 games to gain/retain match fitness, in which case they need to spend time with the U21's to actually fit into the system.
Personally, My view is that the window is closed. The manager has made it clear they do not feature in his plans but he should be happy to keep them as squad players while they work on securing a move when the window opens.