Hearts sporting director Graeme Jones says allowing Lawrence Shankland a break clause in his contract was the only way of getting him to sign on last summer.
The clause allowed Rangers to swoop this summer and sign the striker for free, despite him ostensibly having signed a three-year deal last year, which was a source of frustration for their supporters.
However, Jones says the situation was 'simple' - that was the only contract the 30-year-old was willing to sign last summer.
As such, the club took the calculated risk of losing him a year down the line in return for his output over the campaign. As it turned out, he banged in 20 goals and almost fired them to a historic title win.
Read more
Why it is now time for Rangers' Lawrence Shankland to be Scotland's main striker Rangers' transfer requirements and what Danny Rohl will need in every position
"The situation with Lawrence a year ago was actually quite simple. We as a club had to make a calculation on whether we wanted to keep Lawrence or not and the only way in which we could keep him was with the deal that was agreed in the end," Jones said.
"The calculation was made up of the fact that if we were very successful as a team and Lawrence was very successful on the park, the risk would be that we would lose him at the end of the first season.
"I accept that that may be difficult to hear but I defy anybody to push back against the fact that it was the correct decision for the club that Derek [McInnes] and I took whereby we had Lawrence for the year, he scored 20-plus goals, his leadership on and off the park was of the highest level and he helped as well as the other players and Derek helped to manoeuvre the difficult path for the team where everybody was expecting us to fall, to falter and to not last the course.
"So I naturally understand the disappointment that our fans will feel that losing their captain and their striker, it was the only deal in which it was going to be possible for us to move forward. I back the decision that we made and I'm thankful for the year that we had with Lawrence but like all teams they evolve past players and I'm excited by the evolution of this team going into the summer of the players that we will bring in and the things that we can achieve going forward."
