Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea insists it was inevitable at least one big name player would quit this summer, it just happened to be winger David Strettle.

The 26-year-old confirmed last week he would be joining London rivals Saracens from the beginning of next season, having turned down what O’Shea described as a very good offer to stay at the club.

Fellow winger Ugo Monye snubbed a double-your-money offer to move to France next season to stay in west London, which comes as a boost to the new Quins chief as squads across the Premiership contract.

“We’re comfortable with where we are in terms of the make-up of the squad, but we will be looking to bring in a couple more people,” said O’Shea, ahead of Saturday’s 24-13 defeat at Bath.

“Once I saw the figures in December that we were going to lose one or two of our marquee players. Every club is contracting and no-one is looking for a pay cut.

“We’ve re-signed some really significant players, like Ugo - who was offered double the money to go elsewhere but decided to stay. That is outstanding.

“With Stretts it wasn’t a question of him not wanting to stay; we couldn’t fit him in under the salary cap. We couldn’t offer him the money he was able to get elsewhere.

“We made a very good offer, but you can’t have a squad without a scrum-half. We would have been at a stage where we couldn’t afford a third scrum-half and that is unacceptable.”