Exeter Chiefs could not afford to keep Argentina winger Santiago Cordero, who is joining Bordeaux, says director of rugby Rob Baxter.
Baxter says there was not enough room in the club’s salary cap to keep the exciting 25-year-old at Sandy Park as he prepares to lose him in the summer.
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“There are some realities financially to the squads that you can put together in the Premiership,” he said.
“It’s something that people and supporters probably need to get their heads around a little bit is that we haven’t got an endless salary cap, there isn’t a bucket there that we’re not using that everyone else is filling up.”
Cordero, who initially joined Exeter as cover for six months because of injuries, proved to be a big hit for the Premiership side and has scored six tries this season.
Injuries to Olly Woodburn and British and Irish Lions wingers Jack Nowell and Alex Cuthbert made the Argentine a key player in recent months.
“Santi’s been fantastic for us, he’s done better than we could have ever hoped for him to do,” Baxter told BBC Sport.
“But we’ve got other players there, we can’t just keep on offering extra contracts to everybody and keep strengthening the other places in the squad.”
