It's not as simple as that. Last season we sold Gavin Whyte, Shandon Baptiste and Tariq Fosu-Henry and was a James Henry pass/shot away from promotion.
It's not who you sell, it's who you replace them with. If we sold Brannagan for £2m and brought in Harry Chapman on a free I don't think many would be saying that we were any weaker. Sell Clare to Burton but sign McGuane on a permanent deal? Is that a better deal? We also sold Dickie last year only to then find Elliott Moore get even better and Rob Atkinson to come out of no where! Who's to say that Luke McNally doesn't also make the step up if the opportunity arises?
It would be amazing to keep as many of these players together as possible, but teams constantly evolve and there's every reason to see players move on but we still become stronger.