Aaron Ramsey was released by Arsenal because of "salary balance", the club's head of football Raul Sanllehi has revealed.

The Welshman will join Juventus on July 1 after accepting a contract offer reportedly worth £400,000 per week.

Sanllehi says it would have been irresponsible for the Gunners to match the "incredible" offers that Ramsey received, despite the midfielder wanting to remain at the Emirates.

"One of the key things for me - and I've seen that happening in other clubs - one of the key things is to keep the rationality in the salary balance of the team," he told Arsenal's website.

"Because of our circumstances, because of not renewing Aaron on time, we were in a situation in which Aaron had incredible offers building up on the salary.

"He was really keen on staying with us, he was ready to make the effort but at the end of the whole process we had to be responsible for ourselves and protect the interests of Arsenal. We realised we were going to cause an imbalance that would have been very harmful for the team's sake in the medium and longer term."