Released and retained players announced

Well, I timed my Development Squad round-up well didn’t I? I published the article yesterday, and the released/retained player lists have come out today. I didn’t do too badly with my predictions, either.

The big news for current first team players revolves around goalkeepers: Brad Friedel has been offered (and apparently signed) a one year contract, whilst Heurelho Gomes has been released.

Jon Obika has also been offered a new contract, probably because he has a sell-on value. We got £400k from a League One club (Swindon) for Massimo Luongo so Obika – who has been playing Championship football – should command a similar fee, despite being 24 in September.

Dominic Ball has extended his professional contract, whilst Cristian Ceballos, Grant Ward and Grant Hall have been retained (meaning their contracts didn’t end this summer). Soli Coulibaly has also been offered a new contract; this, for me, was probably one of the biggest surprises – I expected the Ivorian to be released.

As announced in my Spurs Academy round-up, Daniel Akindayini’s scholarship has been extended for a third year, whilst professional contracts have been offered to Ruben Lameiras and Alex McQueen (previously on the third year of their scholarships), as well as second year scholars Filip Lesniak, Aaron McEneff, Luke McGee, Will Miller, Connor Ogilvie, Emmanuel Sonupe, and Harry Winks. Second year scholars Liam Priestley and Kane Vincent-Young have not been retained.

Nathan Oduwa has ‘extended’ his contract, meaning that presumably he was already on a professional contract – an interesting development. Whether that means he was particularly rated, or that we had to fight to keep him (he played some games for West Brom’s Academy team two years ago), I’m unsure. What I do know is that he’s an exciting talent, and one to watch.

Joshua Onomah also signed a professional contract recently, despite being of ‘first year’ age – he has been playing ahead of his age group for some time, and is very highly thought of.

As well as Gomes, youngsters Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Cameron Lancaster, Roman Michael-Percil, Jon Miles, Kevin Stewart and Lawrence Vigouroux have been released on free transfers.

Darren McQueen has also left, signing for Ipswich, and I gather Laste Dombaxe has left the club too.