Pontus Jansson has insisted Leeds United needed to sell him to raise cash.
The defender has been sold to Brentford, joining Leeds' Championship rivals for a fee believe to be around £5.5m and putting pen to paper to a contract initially running until 2022.
It had been claimed that Leeds were not pleased with Jansson's attitude and the relationship between the club and the player had broken down, something which meant the Yorkshire giants chose to sell.
Jansson though has offered another version of events and says that Leeds needed to raise money to comply with financial fair play rules.
He insists the Whites saw him as a player who could bring in cash and as a result looked to sell.
"This is how football is", Jansson told Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
"Leeds needed to sell to get a better balance in their accounts because of the financial fair play rules, and then they saw that they could make money from me."
Jansson had interest from Toulouse, Mainz, Fenerbahce and Celta Vigo, but the defender is clear he wanted to stay in English football to keep his Premier League dream alive.
"I told Martin [Dahlin my agent] that I wanted to be in England when it became this situation.
"There were several flattering suggestions from different clubs, but I enjoy it [in England] and I have made a good name in this country.
"My ambition is to play in the Premier League, but I also did not want to wait for the right club from the Premier League to appear later this summer and risk losing this chance.
"I felt early on that Brentford was the right choice for me. It is a carefully thought out choice."
Jansson is claimed to be earning £30,000 a week at Brentford.
