GRAYS Athletic will not receive a penny from the £1.3million sale of their former striker Aaron McLean to Hull City, despite originally having a 20 per cent sell-on clause in place.

The Ryman One North club would have received about £260,000 from the sale, but that will not happen because the sell-on clause was bought out by the Posh in February 2009.

Grays have not said how much they received to remove the clause, but it is understood to have been considerably less than they would have got from the sale of McLean to the Tigers.

The 27-year-old, who joined Peterborough from Grays for £150,000 in 2007, signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Hull last week.

Peterborough director of football, Barry Fry, said he had been a fantastic servant to the club after scoring 82 goals and helping them to back-to-back promotions.

He said he had sent Grays the necessary paperwork to show they had bought out the sell-on clause on February 9, 2009.

He added: “We had previously turned down a £2million bid for Aaron from Wolves, but now it was the right time to sell because it made good business sense.

“Grays have missed out on the money this time, but they received a payment when they really needed it because they were struggling to pay their players. That’s football, I guess.”

McLean is one several players who made their names at Grays before making high profile moves to league clubs.

Welsh international striker Freddy Eastwood enjoyed a successful spell at Southend, before making a £1.5million move to Wolves, and then a £1.2million transfer to Coventry in July 2008.

Former Grays winger Gary Hooper signed for Southend, and then Scunthorpe for £125,000, before making a £2.4million move to Scottish giants Celtic last year.

And Michael Kightly, who at one time was reportedly attracting interest from Manchester United, moved to Wolves for £25,000 in December 2007, in a deal which also included a 25 per cent sell-on fee for Grays.