Valerien Ismael and Rudy Gestede have opened up about Rovers' decisions to sell Lewis Travis and Dom Hyam this summer.
The pair completed moves to Derby County and Wrexham respectively before the end of the transfer window.
Both players had one year left on their deals, and Ismael says Rovers could not afford to lose more valuable assets on free transfers after Tyrhys Dolan’s departure.
“It is a situation that was clear before the end of the season that we had a couple of players with one year on the contracts left,” he told RoversTV.
“We had the experience with Tyrhys Dolan and knew it can’t happen again when you have value and a big asset in the team.
“Either you are able to sell them, even when you are not willing to sell them, or you have to extend the contract.
“We were not able to extend the contracts for different reasons, and that has happened before our time. At some point there is only one possibility for us, to sell the players.
“When you have got four or five players who are able to leave the club, you cannot afford to let them all (leave) for free because it is a lot of money for the club.
“That is why we had to deal with the situation and I think the club managed it perfectly to get the price we expected for the players.”
Gestede says Rovers did not want to lose the players but insisted they eventually had to make a “business” decision.
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“We sat down with all of them who left the club this season to try to negotiate a new contract,” he said.
“We have got the wage structure of the club so we can’t spend more than a certain amount. We tried to put all of them to this amount.
“Some were already there, some were not. They refused to sign the contract so as a club, but also as a business, we need to make a decision.”
The former striker added: “Some players, we didn’t want them to leave because we knew how valuable they were on the pitch, but we have to make the decision.
“When the player is calling us pushing to leave, we need committed players at the club. That is more important than the money or something else.
“When the player is coming to you and saying, ‘I want to leave the club’ - that means his head is not there. You have to think of the rest of the group, the club, the future and then you make a decision.”
Ismael confirmed The Lancashire Telegraph’s report that two bids had initially been turned down for Hyam.
The head coach explained that Wrexham’s third offer was too good to turn down for a player approaching 30, who could have left for free 12 months later.
“We turned down two offers so we were not willing to sell,” he recalled. “On the Sunday, we had a lot of discussions. We put it for a high price to say, ‘OK, they won’t come back’.
“But they came back and at some point, if the price is that high, you have to explain to the owner why you want to turn that kind of offer for a 30-year-old player with one year left on his contract and the possibility of leaving for free next summer.
“Now you can have a big amount of money, we didn’t expect it and that is why in the end we had to do the deal.
“But we had turned down two offers that were already high. At the end, Wrexham wanted to get the deal done and I think the time was on our side. The pressure was there on their side to make the decision.”
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