Birmingham City discharge 14 players and give two veteran players new contracts

Birmingham City have released five senior players following their relegation to League One, kicking off an extensive summer overhaul.

Neil Etheridge, Marc Roberts, Ivan Sunjic, Gary Gardner, and Scott Hogan will leave the Blues when their contracts end on July 1. The club has given new contracts to John Ruddy, 37, and Lukas Jutkiewicz, 35.

Blues have also exercised their option to extend Keshi Anderson’s contract by an additional year. The 29-year-old winger finished brilliantly last season under interim manager Gary Rowett and will stay at the club until the summer.

But it’s the end of the road for Etheridge, Roberts, Sunjic, Gardner, and Hogan, all of whom have spent a long time at St Andrew’s. Roberts has been with Blues for seven years and has made nearly 200 appearances, while Sunjic remains the club’s record signing. Etheridge, Gardner, and Hogan all played minor roles last season and will now seek new challenges.

Blues have also released nine young players, including Marcel Oakley and Tate Campbell. Oakley earned four first-team appearances last season and eight in total, breaking through in the summer of 2021 under Lee Bowyer. Campbell, a versatile defender, made four appearances for the first team, the last being in August 2022.

Goalkeeper Oliver Basey, Callum Sullivan, Rico Patterson, Finley Thorndike, Kieran Wakefield, Morgan Dance and Pharrell Williams are also leaving Blues. New contracts have been offered to Brad Mayo and Rico Browne, while one-year options have been activated to keep under-21s top scorer Junior Dixon, Laiith Fairnie, Femi Olofinjana, Harley Hamilton and Sahid Kamara.

Contracted players for next season:

Keshi Anderson, Juninho Bacuna, Ben Beresford, Krystian Bielik, Lee Buchahan, 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.