Leeds United chairman Ken Bates says Chelsea aren't alone in raiding clubs for their best young players.

"The problem here is that the big clubs are stripping the small clubs of their youngsters," former Blues chairman Bates told the Daily Mail while responding to the controversy surrounding Chelsea's capture of Gael Kakuta.

"They are like Japanese fishing trawlers, just sweeping up everything in their nets. But the big clubs treat the little clubs like s***. They try to pay as little as possible.

"Manchester City spent more than £200m in the last transfer window but when they took two of our 14-year-olds not so long ago they offered £30,000 for one and £40,000 for the other.

"Never mind how much we had already invested in them. Never mind the fact that running an academy is a bit like running a stud farm. You might get one thoroughbred in 10 but you still have to feed the other nine.

"I know of a number of academies in this country that are actually running at a loss and it is not helped by the fact that the big clubs are taking their best kids from them for peanuts."