Leeds United's wage bill is now befitting a club that can win promotion, says MD Angus Kinnear

Jack Clarke (£9m), Kemar Roofe (£7m) and Pontus Jansson (£5.5m) all completed big-money moves away from Leeds in the summer, although Clarke returned on a season-long loan.

The exits of Bailey-Peacock-Farrell, Samu Saiz and Caleb Ekuban also commanded seven-figure transfer fees and Kinnear says the departures have helped to increase United's wage budget.

Leeds are hopeful the strategy will pay immediate dividends, with influential midfielder Kalvin Phillips on the verge of signing a new deal.

Speaking in a radio interview with BBC Radio Leeds reporter Adam Pope, Kinnear was asked how best to describe what happens to the money generated by transfer sales.

The Whites MD said: "I think the biggest thing to understand is how much the wage bill has grown under Andrea's tenure.

"The wage bill that we had when he took over was a wage bill for a mid table team and there was a correlation between how much you spend on the wage bill and where you finish and that's one of the reasons why Leeds were finishing consistently mid table.

"Buying the players that we have signed and the players that we have renewed who we believe are top drawer Championship players and the type of players who can get us promoted are more expensive so that wage bill has grown significantly.

“So when we are trying to manage the club sustainably, some of the player sales money goes into supporting that wage bill and making sure we can maintain the integrity of the squad.

“We were able to maintain the integrity of the squad but a lot of those player sales go into ensuring that we can finance that and have a wage bill which we think is at the right level to get us promoted."