‘Tis the season for Premier League football clubs’ retained/released lists! This is when English football clubs announce which players they’re intending to keep and which ones they release to the wilds of the free market system.
Tottenham Hotspur just announced theirs today, and there’s not a ton of surprises here. The club reiterated (again) the departure of Lucas Moura at the end of his contract, and announced that both Clement Lenglet and Arnaut Danjuma are returning to their parent clubs (Barcelona and Villarreal, respectively) after the club decided not to purchase them.
More interesting is that the club pointedly did NOT mention Dejan Kulusevski, whose loan also concludes this month after initially joining for 18 months plus a purchase obligation/option. There have been numerous reports that Spurs are in the process of negotiating down the fee to Juventus to purchase him permanently, which is what I expect will happen. His €35m purchase option expires at the end of the month, and Spurs will either buy him for that, or for a negotiated lower fee. Either way, I think the odds are extremely slim that Deki will leave the club.
Spurs also announced that several academy graduates and players have also been waived.
We can also confirm the departures of Development Squad players Jamie Bowden, Kallum Cesay, Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Roshaun Mathurin, Marqes Muir and Romaine Mundle following the conclusion of their contracts.
Under-18s players Thomas Bloxham, Brandon Bryan-Waugh and Riley Owen have also departed following the conclusion of their scholarships.
The biggest loss on this list is Romaine Mundle, who opted to wind down his contract and pursue other opportunities on the free market; I have heard some reports that he’s entertaining options from clubs in Belgium.
Otherwise, no real surprises here apart from maybe Jamie Bowden, who I recall was once highly regarded. I’m not aware of his circumstance, so either the club were ready to cut ties with him or he pulled a “lettuce” and wound down his contract like Romaine Mundle.
