"Pure profit" - Leeds United chief makes Archie Gray and Summerville revelations | OneFootball

Angus Kinnear has spoken out about Gray's exit

Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear has revealed that the club did not need to sell Archie Gray in the transfer window, but it made more sense to let him go over other players, while he has also explained the situation around Crysencio Summerville's departure to West Ham.

The 18-year-old was sold by the Whites to Tottenham Hotspur at the start of July in the wake of their play-off final defeat to Southampton, after breaking into Daniel Farke's squad at the start of last season and producing some standout performances from right-back throughout his debut campaign.

Gray joined Spurs for a reported fee of around £40m, with his sale met by furore from Whites fans who had likely anticipated the likes of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter departing the club, but had not expected their local lad and academy product to be allowed to leave so early on in his career.

Summerville, meanwhile, did also eventually leave Elland Road in August to join the Hammers for a fee in excess of £25m on a five-year contract.

Angus Kinnear explains decisions to sell Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville

Gray has settled well into his time in North London, with two appearances in the top-flight so far, but new revelations have now come out around his departure.

Profit and sustainability rules (PSR) aim to police how much money each club that has been in the Premier League is allowed to lose over a specific period of time, while pure profit, which is brought in from selling players that were not bought off another team, means a club can bank all the money it makes on outgoing transfers once it is in their accounts.

In a new interview on The Square Ball podcast, the Whites' chief executive, Kinnear, defended the club's decision to sell Gray this summer, and confirmed that they allowed him to leave instead of some of Farke's other players due to his status as an academy product.

"If you look at our overall PSR picture, we did need to make sales across the window," he told The Square Ball.

"Archie is very valuable from a PSR perspective because he’s an academy product, so there is no amortisation, there’s no book value to him at all.

“There was always going to be somebody who was a sacrificial lamb for that cause, and Archie is the obvious one because he’s come through the academy. So, he’s pure profit from a PSR point of view.

“(If not Gray) it could have been Pascal, or it could have been Willy, or it could have been Max Wober (to have been sold)."

Kinnear also explained Leeds' decision to allow Championship Player of the Year Summerville to join Premier League side West Ham in August, and it seems as if their hand was forced by the 22-year-old regarding the move.

"I think we expected Cree (Summerville) to leave," he told The Square Ball.

“He’d made (clear) his intention that he wanted to leave, and we thought he would get a move.”

Daniel Farke has got his Gray and Summerville replacements

While Leeds may have lost some of their best players this summer, Farke's side are still expected to mount a serious challenge for the Championship title this season with a lot of their squad from last season retained.

Their transfer window was obviously not ideal for the aforementioned reasons, but they still managed to get a number of new faces through the door, with two in particular that were clear replacements for both Gray and Summerville.

Right-back Jayden Bogle was signed in July from Sheffield United on a four-year deal for fee of around £5m, and while that is dwarved by the figure that Gray left the club for, Whites chief Kinnear has been optimistic over his ability to replace the 18-year-old, stating that they believe that Bogle "will be able to perform this season at the same level as Archie Gray for an eighth of (his) value."

Spurs and Leeds were not done negotiating together in the window after Gray's move, as winger Manor Solomon moved from the North London club to Elland Road on a season-long loan in August, with his talents clear from his time in the Premier League with Spurs and Fulham, as well as his spell in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk.

24-year-old Bogle has featured in all of Leeds' first four league games so far, with two wins and two losses in that time making it a decent start to his life in West Yorkshire, while Solomon notched an assist on his Whites' debut against Hull last time out, in doing so proving that life after both Gray and Summerville should still hold some promise for Farke's side.