Town have offered professional terms to eight youngsters including Rio Morgan (pictured), Nico Valentine, Gerrard Buabo and Leon Ayinde, while 18 of their U21s and U18s teammates have been released.

The Premier League has released full retained lists for its 2024/25 clubs, revealing which youngsters will still be at Town next season and who will be looking for new clubs, the Blues having published a more senior list last month.

From the U21s, Edwin Agbaje, Charlie Binns, Matty Roberts, Jesse Ayoola, Harry Barbrook, who has already joined recent loan side Chelmsford City, Henry Curtis, Ayyuba Jambang, Daniel O’Connor, Emmanuel Okunowo, Oli Davis and Chuks Uzor-Greey are all set to move on this summer, along with U18s Alan Fleischer, who recently rejoined his former loan club Heybridge Swifts, George Chenery, Callum Frith, Revin Domi, George Iorpenda, who recently spent time on trial at Huddersfield, Noah Rastrick and Luke Towler.

Contracts have been offered to Irish forward Ayinde, who enjoyed an impressive spell on loan in the National League with Rochdale, Valentine, who had loan spells at Needham Market and Chelmsford during 2024/25, and Gerrard Buabo, who returned from injury in the latter stages of the season having made a handful of senior appearances in 2022/23 and 2023/24.

Morgan, who won his first Northern Ireland U21s caps in March, scoring on his debut, is another of John McGreal’s squad to have been offered new terms.

Scholars to have been offered professional deals are Afi Adebayo, Fraser Heard, Josh Lewis and Jamie Mauge, who caught the eye on loan at Bury Town.

Full retained list

Photo: REUTERS/Michaela Stache

trevski_s added 17:40 - Jun 9 Such a shame to see a mass release like this but i'm sure they will all go on to do well. This seems to show my thinking about the last of the academy players from the Evans era as they should now be about the age of breaking into the first team and as much as I don't like to say negatives words about any of the younger prospects, we haven't really heard much about them playing in the U21/U18 games or going out on loan and doing well. Plus Ashton and co seem to be signing young prospects and I wonder if a bit of a clear out seems to indicate a potential new batch coming in and maybe the prospect of Cat 1 academy Great to see a handful of them getting professional contracts though and getting the chance to really prove themselves and hopefully some of them can break into the first team in next season or 2 especially the likes of Buabo (who has looked impressive when given chance) and Valentine (who I have heard a few good things about)

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Bluefox added 19:09 - Jun 9 Thought we were supposed to have signed Charlie Wood from needham market a month or so back. Doesn’t seem to be on the list?
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Bluefox added 19:09 - Jun 9 Thought we were supposed to have signed Charlie Wood from needham market a month or so back. Doesn’t seem to be on the list?
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Edmundo added 21:24 - Jun 9 Nicole Valentine broke into the under 18s aged just 15. Had a loan spell at Needham, hopefully will kick on, as he's looked an exciting prospect.
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Tractor_Boy_in_HK added 03:53 - Jun 10 Our academy used to be the crown jewel and now it's a problem. Something has gone wrong and I hope management knows how to reverse the trend. Luke Woolfenden is the only grad in the squad, with Cam Humphreys the only other one playing at a good level with a chance of breaking through. A club like ours needs to be developing players to be sustainable.
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LeightonBuzzardBlue added 11:39 - Jun 10 think we'll be seeing a bit of Boniface, Mendel and Mazionis in pre-season
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NorwegianTractor added 17:15 - Jun 10 As Bluefox mentioned there is no mention about CHARLIE WOOD (signed in April from Needham Market, but his contract starts July 1st. Maybe the same is the case for CORBIN MTHUNZI (signed April from Brighton) and WALKER SHABAZZ-EDWARDS (signed March from Brightlingsea)?
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PhilTWTD added 17:54 - Jun 10 NorwegianTractor Hadn't spotted that they were missing when I wrote the story, but all have signed, assume some technical paperwork reason why their names aren't down.
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