Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has claimed that "other influences" played a key role in Wesley Fofana leaving the club to join Chelsea.
The Foxes had resisted interest from Thomas Tuchel's side in the centre-back, rejecting at least two offers, but he ultimately moved to Stamford Bridge in a £70m deal on Wednesday.
Rodgers has called the 21-year-old "a good kid", and the club's head coach is regretful that the former Premier League champions could not manage to keep hold of him for another season at least.
"It clearly is difficult," Rodgers told BT Sport. "I will always defend players and I will defend Wesley here. There's a lot of noise around there and around him about what was said.
"I will never get too emotional with words and I look at the logic of it: I know where the statement came from and it wasn't Wesley Fofana [speaking].
"This kid is a good kid. We brought him in, no-one knew him really. He came in and we gave him a good platform here. He was amazing and we thought he could stay at least another year here.
"He's taken the possibility to go and it's a shame for us and it's a shame at how it ended. He's a good guy and I think other influences have taken him away from the club."
Youri Tielemans has also been linked with an exit this summer, with Arsenal and Liverpool said to be interested, but the Belgium international is set to stay at the King Power Stadium.
Matt Law
