The Whites were expecting to lose a few players after getting relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season but they were also expected to hold on to a few who eventually left.
A number of players had clauses to leave on loan from Leeds once they got relegated and they accepted an offer to loan Luis Sinisterra to Bournemouth on deadline day.
Kinnear conceded that the way some of the players were adamant about not wanting to play in the Championship did surprise the club.
He insisted that the attraction of the Premier League cannot be compared with and the players had no desire to drop down to the second tier.
The Leeds CEO admitted that the club felt that they could convince the players to stick around and right the wrongs of last season but they badly misjudged the mood.
Kinnear told the Square Ball: “When I’ve spoken to them, the vehemence that the players don’t want to play in the Championship has absolutely surprised me.
“I don’t think it’s a Leeds United thing. It’s a broader football thing. It’s about the profile of the Premier League. It’s about the money paid in the Premier League.
“What we’ve seen is that players have absolutely no desire to play in the Championship.
“We thought we could convince them that this was a great project, that playing in the Championship and tearing it up for a season would be good for their careers and wouldn’t harm their international careers.
“I’ve been naive about it but it’s been brutally disappointing at how we’ve seen players crawl over broken glass to leave our club.
“We’ve had a bad year but I thought there’d be a bigger emotional bond; there’d be a desire to put right the bad seasons they had last year.”
It remains to be seen whether the Leeds loanees stay once they return next year if the club get promoted to the Premier League.
