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Chronicle Live

Sport

James Hunter

Sunderland offer three players new contracts as they confirm their retained list

Sunderland Will Grigg Aiden McGeady Black Cats Bailey Wright Jordan Willis Lee Burge Leon Dajaku Lynden Gooch Patrick Roberts

Sunderland have offered three of their eight out-of-contract players new deals to remain on Wearside in the Championship next season. The Black Cats were afforded extra time to finalise their retained list due to their involvement in the League One play-offs, but they have now published the list and confirmed that academy product Lynden Gooch, ex-Manchester City winger Patrick Roberts, and Australia international centre-back Bailey Wright have been offered new terms.

The other five players whose current contract expire at the end of June - ex-Republic of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady, goalkeeper Lee Burge, Kosovo defender Arbenit Xhemajli, defender Jordan Willis, and striker Will Grigg - have been released. The decisions over which players will be offered new deals and which will be allowed to leave, will come as little surprise to supporters.

Gooch and Wright have been mainstays of the side this season, playing 38 and 37 respectively of the club's 46 league games, while Roberts joined in January and became increasingly influential in the second half of the campaign, and came to the fore in the play-offs. As for those who will depart, McGeady had become a cult hero since his arrival in 2017 but he turned 36 last month and has not played since suffering a knee ligament injury in November.

He recently returned to full fitness, has already said that he wants to continue playing, and is unlikely to be short of suitors with Fleetwood Town one name that has been linked with him already. Burge was Sunderland's first-choice goalkeeper the season before last, but ended up as third choice last term behind academy product Anthony Patterson and on-loan Bayern Munich man Thorben Hoffmann.

Xhemajli returned to fitness in December but made just a handful of appearances after recovering from a serious knee ligament injury that had sidelined the 24-year-old for 14 months of his two-year stay on Wearside. Willis, 27, has not played since suffering a ruptured patella tendon in February 2021.

And Grigg's unhappy three-and-a-half year spell at the club is also over, with the 30-year-old leaving having spent the vast majority of his final season on loan at Rotherham. Leon Dajaku will complete a permanent move to Sunderland from German side Union Berlin at the end of June, with the Black Cats' promotion triggering a clause in his season-long loan agreement.

But fellow loannees Hoffmann, Everton striker Nathan Broadhead, Spurs winger Jack Clarke, and Manchester City defender Callum Doyle, have all returned to their parent clubs. A number of youngsters have also been let go, including striker Will Harris who spent the second half of the season on loan at League Two Barrow, defender Kenton Richardson who had a loan spell at Spennymoor Town last season, midfielders Cieran Dunne, Stephen Wearne, Vinnie Steels and Sam Wilding, winger Tyrese Dyce, goalkeeper Jack McIntyre, and defenders Patrick Almond and Ugonna Emenike.