Inter Milan chief Marco Branca says they couldn't keep Samuel Eto'o and Thiago Motta against their will.
Eto'o signed for Russia's Anzhi in the summer, while midfielder Motta moved to France in January to join PSG.
"From a technical point of view not only myself, but also the President and everyone at Inter would have made different choices," he told Sky Sport Italia when questioned about the sales.
"However, if we made the decisions that we did then it's because we couldn't do any differently "