Reading FC begin re-build after relegation
Twelve first team players are leaving the club
Reading football club has started the process of re-building its playing staff after relegation to league one.
On the first team front, Nesta Guinness-Walker will be staying next season.
The 23-year-old left-back impressed in his first campaign with the club and, as part of his contract agreed last summer, an option to extend his stay in RG2 until 2024 has been triggered.
Amadou Mbengue, the versatile Senegal Under-21 international has been offered a two-year contract at the club.
Seven years after he first signed as a Royal, Yakou Meite is in discussions with the club around the potential offer of a new contract for 2023-24, while the details of an offer of a new deal have also been prepared for experienced winger Junior Hoilett.
All six players who represented the Royals on loan last season have returned to their parent clubs; Jeff Hendrick, Mamadou Loum, Joe Lumley, Baba Rahman, Tyrese Fornah and Cesare Casadei.
The club is also saying farewell to Scott Dann, Luke Southwood, Shane Long, Liam Moore, Lucas Joao and Dejan Tetek after the expiration of their contracts.
At Under-21 level, England and Jamaica youth international Coniah Boyce-Clarke has been offered a three-year contract with the Royals. The 20-year-old stopper had been part of the first team squad towards the end of the campaign and made his first team bow on the final day of the season at Huddersfield Town.
Left-back John Clarke has also been offered a one-year deal with the Royals; he joined the club last summer and made 1(+3) appearances for the first team, featuring in three league wins and our Carabao Cup defeat to Stevenage.
The club has offered new terms to left-back Matt Carson - who impressed on trial with the Under-21s last season - and centre-half Jeriel Dorsett who spent 2022-23 in the Scottish Premiership with Kilmarnock.