RUPERT LOWE has defended the deal which saw Wayne Bridge transferred to Chelsea, saying: "We did what was best for Saints."

With Wayne Bridge having put in a transfer request to join Roman Abramovich's Chelsea, Lowe eventually negotiated a fee of £7m plus Graeme Le Saux for his prized 22-year-old England left-back.

Many fans insist Bridge is worth at least £10m, but Lowe pointed to the depressed financial market in football as well as the importance of signing a ready-made replacement at left-back.

He said: "It is a very imperfect market and under the circumstances we have done as well as we could out of the deal.

"We have turned down offers for Wayne Bridge in the past, but he made it clear he did see Chelsea as his home and then it was a matter of negotiating what we could for him.

"Footballers are people and there is no point forcing them to play where they don't want to play. At the end of the day, Wayne Bridge handed in a transfer request and that underlines he wanted to move.

"The supporters have watched Wayne to see him go from being a youth player to an international and we felt we have played a part in that.

"It is with regret that we see him going, but we have done very well in getting Graeme Le Saux to join us.

"We now have Graeme, we have money to invest, so I think that as a club we have come out of it as well as we could have done."

Lowe also reminded fans of the transfer of Dean Richards to Tottenham nearly two years ago and how the money had been used to great effect.

He said: "There was a lot of angst and worry when Dean Richards left, but the club has strengthened since.

"If people can focus on the team rather than the past, we have shown we can get stronger.

"People need to have some trust in us."

Lowe also confirmed that capturing Le Saux was a condition of the Bridge deal.

"Gordon Strachan has a very high regard for Graeme Le Saux as a professional. With Wayne Bridge going we would have been woefully short on the left side so we made it a condition of the deal and that balanced out the fact we were losing someone who everyone valued," he added.