Anna Grey and Abbie Lafayette are leaving Ipswich Town Women this summer, the Tractor Girls having released their retained list following the end of the 2022/23 campaign.

Winger Grey (above) and defender Lafayette (below), both first-team regulars, are out of contract this summer and are likely to have been interesting clubs from the Barclays Championship.

Grey, 21, has been with the club for five years having come through the academy and made 72 appearances, scoring 27 goals. She was runner-up for the 2022/23 Player of the Year award.

Lafayette, another academy graduate who has been at Town for five years, made 83 appearances and scored 15 goals.

Also moving on are loanees Brooke Cairns, who joined on dual registration terms from West Ham in February, and Freya Godfrey, who is back with Arsenal where she signed her first professional contract yesterday.

Meanwhile, skipper Blue Wilson, Maddie Biggs, Lucy Egan and Olivia Smith will return for pre-season training with contract discussions still ongoing.

Speaking to TWTD in May, manager Joe Sheehan admitted he was concerned he might lose members of last season's squad.

“A little bit,” he said. “We have nine out of contract. We have some important meetings over the next week because it’s obvious our players attract so many big clubs because of their potential and I think they have served us really well and have been incredibly loyal over four and five years.

“So it will be difficult to keep hold of a lot of our players but we’ll see what we can put together and hopefully we can retain as many and recruit and top-up and see where it takes us.”

Confirmed Retained List

Players who will report for pre-season training with contract discussions ongoing

Maddie Biggs
Lucy Egan
Olivia Smith
Blue Wilson

Players who have been offered new terms or had their contract options triggered

Maria Boswell
Sarah Brasero-Carreira
Nia Evans
Bonnie Horwood
Summer Hughes
Eloise King
Nina Meollo
Lucy O'Brien
Sophie Peskett
Sarah Quantrill
Kyra Robertson
Natasha Thomas
Holly Turner
Megan Wearing

Players departing following the expiration of their contracts

Anna Grey
Abbie Lafayette

Loan players returning to their parent clubs

Brooke Cairns
Freya Godfrey

Photos: Ross Halls

Generic added 11:59 - Jun 24 Oof. Two big blows. Need to get out of this infernal league or this attrition will just accelerate.
1

emergencylime added 14:23 - Jun 24 Noooooo.☹️ All the best to Anna & Abbie
0

blues1 added 14:53 - Jun 24 So last season, lose our best player in peake, at least for a fee, don't replace her. Now 2 more of the best players leaving for free. Will they be replaced? If not, can't see us challenging at the top again.
0

Freddies_Ears added 15:34 - Jun 24 Still paying the price for the cancelled Covid season that delayed our progress up the leagues. These two will be hard to replace, but we still have an excellent squad.
0

runningout added 15:45 - Jun 24 good luck to those leaving. Must keep standards high
0

ScottCandage added 17:53 - Jun 24 This is a gut punch. Anna is going to be a star, and Abby is a fantastic player. Will be hard to replace. (But Danielle Rowe is available, as Pompey didn't retain her for some reason.)
1

Crinkle59 added 12:29 - Jun 25 looks like contracts were not extended early . Are we content to be stuck n this league unlike the men?
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls