In an interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, chairman Ken Bates moved to address concern among supporters over why United's income in recent months and years was insufficient to secure ownership of the club's training ground near Wetherby.

An exclusive buy-back option negotiated by Leeds when they sold Thorp Arch to private owners in 2004 – a deal completed in an effort to fight rising debts at Elland Road – expired on October 15 after a plan for Leeds City Council to acquire the site and lease it back to United collapsed in the final hours before the deadline.

Bates said the club considered the council's plan a "done deal" and criticised the local authority for setting at late notice 13 conditions which Leeds claimed they were unable to answer before the deadline and would have left the club facing a £5.8million buy-back bill without a guarantee that the council would provide the necessary funding.

The failed deal, however, raised questions about United's inability to fund the repurchase cost themselves. The club posted a £4.5million profit in the financial year leading up to June 2008 – including an operating profit of more than £900,000 – and sold Fabian Delph to Aston Villa in August for a fee which was widely reported to be in the region of £6million.

United confirmed that the undisclosed fee for Delph was being paid to them in instalments and said further income – generated by the likes of tribunals involving a number of United's former academy players – were being used to meet running costs and other expenses including managerial appointments and sackings.

Among the liabilities listed by Bates were:

An annual wage bill in excess of £6million, described by him as "on a par with an awful lot of Championship clubs".

A yearly rental bill of around £2million for Elland Road and Thorp Arch, on top of £600,000 paid in rates and utility costs for the two properties.

Pay-outs which are currently being made to former manager Gary McAllister and former assistant manager Steve Staunton, both of whom had their contracts terminated in December of last year

Compensation owed to Blackpool Football Club after Leeds appointed Simon Grayson as their new manager 10 months ago.

Investment of more than £500,000 in securing planning permission from Leeds City Council to redevelop the East Stand at Elland Road.

Bates said: "This is an expensive football club to run and we didn't have the money (to conclude the Thorp Arch deal without the council's help).

"The wage bill is on a par with an awful lot of Championship clubs.

"We've had to pay money to McAllister and Staunton and to pay for bringing in Grayson. We've also spent £500,000 on getting planning permission to redevelop the East Stand. When that's completed, it's something the club will benefit from for years to come. Buying Thorp Arch with our own money wasn't an option because we didn't have the money to do it. A lot of clubs are in trouble at the moment but we're run sensibly.

"Our objective at the moment is to get promoted from League One and we're well on the way to doing that. Leeds United is run efficiently and properly. Never again will this club be put in a position where it does not live within its means. It's in safe hands."

Pressed on the subject of Delph's transfer fee, a portion of which is being paid to the midfielder's former club Bradford City, chief executive Shaun Harvey said: "You don't receive 100 per cent of the fee up front.

"People see a headline figure of £6million but that's not what we actually receive straight away. Bradford got their share and still have some to come."

Bates revealed that Leeds would shortly be required to pay an appearance-related sum to Barnet as part of the deal which brought Tresor Kandol to Leeds from Underhill in 2007, and he also said that the club were budgeting for additional bonus payments which would be due to players signed on loan in the event that the club are promoted from League One this season.

The profit of £4.5million recorded during the financial year leading up to June 2008 arrived around the same time as Leeds incurred heavy costs through their fight against a 15-point penalty, imposed on them by the Football League following the club's exit from administration. Bates confirmed that the bill for that fight ran to seven figures.

United's chairman said the accumulation of these costs explained why the club were unable to raise the £5.8million needed to buy back Thorp Arch from Barnaway Ltd, the company which holds the freehold on the training ground and currently rents it to Leeds for around £500,000 a year.

He insisted that every one of the council's conditions would have been met by the club had the local authority not raised them on the last day before the October 15 deadline.

Bates expressed his disappointment with the council's failure to conclude the sale, saying: "As far as we were concerned, it was a done deal.

"The conditions raised by the council at the last minute were all capable of being resolved if it had given us enough time to do so but we couldn't commit to a deal without the guarantee that the council would come up with the money 28 days later (the point at which the sale would have been officially completed). We didn't have the money to afford it."

Leeds no longer have the exclusive right to purchase Thorp Arch, though the club's lease agreement runs for 20 years and they could still attempt to negotiate a private sale with Barnaway Ltd at a future date.

In response, the council's joint leader, councillor Andrew Carter, told the YEP: "The timescale for this wasn't set by us and we did our best to meet it.

"Both parties worked in good faith to achieve a deal and, when it fell through, we seemed to agree that everyone had done their best to make it happen. But the conditions we stipulated existed all along."