The 19 players leaving Birmingham City as two urged to stay

New contracts have been either offered or activated for three senior players but five of the first team have been let go.

Seven young professionals have been shown the exit door, while two third-year scholars and five loanees see their time at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park conclude.

It’s set to be a chaotic summer for Blues, kicked off by this exodus. The tough decisions had to be made with no advice from a head coach figure as Tony Mowbray remains on leave and Gary Rowett’s last day coincided with the final fixture of the season.

The financial power available for Blues to rebuild remains to be seen but a revamp of the squad is inevitable. Before that can begin, though, the voids left by the released list must be assessed.

Released players

Five first-team members have been let go. These are Neil Etheridge, Gary Gardner, Scott Hogan, Marc Roberts and Ivan Sunjic.

A further seven young professionals have been released: Oliver Basey, Tate Campbell, Marcel Oakley, Rico Patterson, Callum Sullivan, Finley Thorndike and Kieran Wakefield.

Loan stars Emanuel Aiwu, Oliver Burke, Andre Dozzell, Cody Drameh and Jay Stansfield will all return to their parent clubs. Third-year scholars Morgan Dance and Pharrell Williams also depart.

Retained list

Blues have confirmed new deals have been offered to veteran duo Lukas Jutkiewicz and John Ruddy. Fans will be particularly happy about the former, with a club legend potentially sticking around.

Keshi Anderson, meanwhile, has seen a one-year extension activated. Junior Dixon, Laiith Fairnie, Harley Hamilton, Sahid Kamara and Femi Olofinjana will all stay due to similar circumstances.

The squad for next season

A total of 27 players remain contracted but many of these are inexperienced or youth prospects.

These are: Keshi Anderson, Juninho Bacuna, Ben Beresford, Krystian Bielik, Lee Buchanan, Alfie Chang, Junior Dixon, Siriki Dembele, Romelle Donovan, Laiith Fairnie, Tommy Fogarty, George Hall, Harley Hamilton, Josh Home, Jordan James, Sahid Kamara, Brandon Khela, Ethan Laird, Emmanuel Longelo, Koji Miyoshi, Femi Olofinjana, Byron Pendleton, Paik Seung-ho, Alex Pritchard, Tyler Roberts, Dion Sanderson, Josh Williams.