Peterborough United owner Darragh MacAnthony has claimed that Jack Marriott is earning over £18,000 per week at Derby County.
The former Posh striker was one of the most sought-after stars this summer, with Bristol City , Leeds United and Nottingham Forest all linked with him before the Rams made their move.
Using Marriott's wages as an example of how Peterborough further their players' careers, MacAnthony asked why a striker would not want to move to London Road.
He said to BBC Cambridgeshire : "What striker wouldn't want to come to us? It's amazing, but when I hear that they don't want to come to you, at the end of the day, I'm not fighting to beg someone to come here.
"The Jack Marriotts of this world took pay cuts to come to us from League Two, and the reason that Jack Marriott is earning the £18,000, £19,000 a week he's getting paid nowadays is because he could see what Peterborough could do for him and vice versa.
"He wasn't worried about the immediate payday - he was 23, 24 that's our type of player, who wants to come, play, further themselves, further the club, that works for us.
"We have to be careful, and I say this to other clubs out there as well, you advertise that good young players come to you for the point of both doing well together and we'd never stand in your way to go to a big Derby County, or Bournemouth, to go to those clubs, as long as it's beneficial for both of us.
"The minute you stop those players moving on, the minute you put a flag in the sand and create a scenario where a player could go on strike or a player doesn't want to play or go on pre-season camp or whatever, it sets a stink, and the stink carries over to the next young player who looks at Peterborough and goes, 'actually, they stopped him going to the top of the Championship, so why would I go there for less money?'"
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Speaking about the deal to sell Marriott, MacAnthony confirmed a large number of clubs were interested.
The Robins are believed to have made a bid for Marriott, with Lee Johnson later calling him a punt , whilst Forest were at one point said to be leading the race to sign him.
MacAnthony said: "What happens with clubs is, it comes to the end of a season, a lot of recruitment officers will go and meet with agents and players that are in their likes.
"For example, with Forest, their head of recruitment met with his agent and said he is one of our targets, so we were told that was imminent, that was happening - the manager of Forest went out with our manager for dinner, 'very high on our list', that went on for a while, we then had other interest from other clubs.
"When I say interest, they ring up and say 'would you take this' - that's not an offer, that's not a written offer, it's not a firm offer - and we'd say no.
"That would bat them away and you get more.
"Barry (Fry) said to me early on, I think it was the start of June, that Derby would buy him, and the reason he felt so strongly was because he'd seen Frank Lampard at the play-off finals and Lampard had given him the impression that Jack would be his number one acquisition.
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"That went on way too long and in the end we turned down bid number four and five when we were out in Portugal and I went back to Derby and said 'look, the player is in bits, this is what's going on, this is where I am, I'll be really, really transparent and honest about it - instead of turning down bids, we've told you before this is our stance, what do you want to do? Either we come to a deal or you move on and I have to tell the player'.
"I'd already said to the player there was a chance this wasn't going to happen.
"So we found a compromise, we did the deal that was right for the football club, right for the player, and I'll be a Derby fan this season - I hope he does well, I hope they win promotion.
"To be fair, at the end, their chief executive and their owner, who I dealt with as well, they were good to deal with, they were fine."
The Posh owner also hit out at the reported fee for Marriott.
Sky Sports and local press reported the fee as being an initial £2m to £3m, eventually rising to £5m with add-ons, but MacAnthony was keen to say this was not the case.
He said: "What do you think? The people in local press know the deal, they know it properly. It might be undisclosed.
"If you think buying a player for £400,000 last year over 40 months, where we've only paid £100,000 of that so far in a transfer fee, and selling that player for x amount, plus all the add-ons, was cheap, then you don't know me.
"There's no way on earth I'd have sold our leading goal scorer, probably our best player, who was also on fire in training out in Portugal, for the figures that were quoted.
"Incorrect. Not only that, the add-ons are just absolutely tremendous.
"Yeah, they're based on him doing well and them doing well as a club but it's Derby County, they're going to do well. It's Jack Marriott, he's going to do welll.
"We've got a very good fee and we have a very big second part of the fee in add-ons, so if everything comes to fruition he'll be our record sale."
He added: "I'm happy, people slate me all the time, but I've said to the shareholders, they have a right any time they want to know a fee.
"If they want to come and sit with me I'll go through all the fees we've paid, all the fees we've received, I'm not breaking any confidentiality agreement with other clubs because as a shareholder they have a right to know.
"But I can't talk about it publicly, or on Twitter, or in an interview - I'd love to because I've read the figures and it's irritated the life out of me.
"It makes us look like we're desperate and needed the money but we didn't, we did the right deal for the player, we did the right deal for us.
"The player did not want to stay, he made that very clear - he didn't go to the stage where Lee Tomlin was ripping offices up six years ago to get a move or get sent off five times, he wasn't like that but there was no way he was going to be starting the season with us in our team.
"He wasn't mentally going to be ready for that with the blow of turning down Derby County, particularly when he and his agent already knew what he was going to get paid.
"That's the way it works."