"Sometimes players have their heads turned and get their heart set on going elsewhere," Neil told reporters on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's clash with Stoke City.
"In Lewis's situation? There was too much water under the bridge and it just made sense that because we were not utilising his talents we had a commodity there that wasn't supplying anything for us," he added.
"So what we had to do was try and get the best value for that and reinvest it and bring someone in who can contribute."
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
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