Summer brings the end of the club football season as international tournaments take over and transfers dominate.
While the majority of Premier League players will be staying at their respective clubs, others’ contracts are due to end on June 30.
Where they go next can be followed in The Transfer DealSheet, which started last week and can be found on The Athletic every Tuesday.
But first, we look at those whose deals are up this summer, who is staying, who is going and who is still in discussions.
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Arsenal
The veteran pair of Cedric and Mohamed Elneny will leave the club this summer upon the expirations of their contracts. As of yet, there is no indication as to where they will play their football next season.
Arsenal are still in last-minute negotiations with Karl Hein, Amario Cozier-Duberry and Reuell Walters, as they attempt to persuade them to renew.
Walters in particular has appeared resolute in his determination to leave and pursue first-team football, but Arsenal are still optimistic that they can persuade all three to reconsider.
James McNicholas
Aston Villa
No Villa players are out of contract this summer, but looking ahead to next summer, there are a few issues.
Kortney Hause‘s situation, as explained here by The Athletic, is complicated. The defender has been hampered by a knee injury which kept him out for the season, so fully recovering his fitness is key to his next move.
Meanwhile, Calum Chambers’ deal is also due to expire next summer and his future remains in doubt.
Jacob Tanswell
Bournemouth
Lloyd Kelly was the notable exit after Bournemouth confirmed the defender had left the club, having failed to agree a new deal.
Kelly remains highly rated, with Newcastle United pursuing a move and Bournemouth were keen to tie the 25-year-old down to a new deal.
Elsewhere, Emiliano Marcondes and Jamal Lowe — who spent the season on loan — were released, along with the experienced duo Ryan Fredericks and Darren Randolph.
Jacob Tanswell
Brentford
Saman Ghoddos, Charlie Goode and Shandon Baptiste will all leave Brentford this summer when their contracts expire.
Ghoddos is a cult hero for playing in every position except goalkeeper under head coach Thomas Frank. The 30-year-old left Brentford last summer only to return on a short-term deal after the campaign had started, but this feels like a permanent goodbye.
Baptiste and Goode are two players who failed to fulfil their potential in west London because of their poor injury records.
Ben Mee and Josh Dasilva’s contracts were running out but they have both signed new one-year deals.
Jay Harris
Brighton
Adam Lallana, 36, will leave Brighton after four years when his contract expires next month. He is expected to join former club Southampton, who have just been promoted back to the top flight.
Two other experienced players, Danny Welbeck, 33, and James Milner, 38, have renewed their deals at the club, for two years and a year respectively.
Elsewhere, Steven Alzate is set to be released when his deal runs out on June 30 after spending the past two season on loan to Standard Liege in Belgium.
Andy Naylor
Chelsea
The biggest-name exit is that of Thiago Silva, who will join Fluminense, but there are no other Chelsea players out of contract this summer.
Conor Gallagher has just a year remaining on his deal so his future is to be decided, with no developments in terms of negotiating an extension.
Selling the academy product would raise revenue, in a similar manner in which Mason Mount left last summer to Manchester United.
Simon Johnson
Crystal Palace
The only players whose contracts were expiring at Palace this summer who will be departing are midfielder Jairo Riedewald, who departs after seven years, centre-back James Tomkins, who also leaves after seven years with the club, and defender Nathan Ferguson, who made only one senior appearance in four years because of repeated injuries.
Nathaniel Clyne has signed a new contract after making 19 Premier League appearances last season, while Remi Matthews has been offered a new deal.
Joel Ward, Will Hughes and Jeffrey Schlupp all triggered automatic one-year extensions based on appearance clauses.
Matt Woosnam
Everton
Club captain Seamus Coleman and defender Ashley Young have been offered new deals and are expected to stay, while Everton have also taken up their option to extend midfielder Idrissa Gueye’s contract by a further season.
Andre Gomes is the most high-profile departure, with the decision taken to dispense with his salary of more than £100,000 per week as part of further cost-cutting measures.
Veteran goalkeeper Andy Lonergan and academy graduate Lewis Warrington, who made his Premier League debut against Sheffield United in May, will also leave when their deals expire at the end of the month.
Patrick Boyland
Fulham
After 11 years at Fulham, goalkeeper Marek Rodak will leave the club when his contract expires this month. Fulham offered him a new deal but, after losing his first-team spot for a second time after winning promotion, the 27-year-old now wants to play regular football. He joined the club’s academy in 2013, and made 93 appearances.
Joining him will be Tosin Adarabioyo, who turned down a new deal and will leave on a free transfer. He is joining Chelsea.
Terence Kongolo and Tyrese Francois will also depart. Kongolo was signed in a deal worth up to £7million in 2020 but made just two appearances, after being beset by injuries.
Fulham are still in talks with Willian, who is considering his options, and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, who has been offered a two-year deal.
Peter Rutzler
Ipswich Town
Five member of the promotion-winning team will not be joining Ipswich next season after 35-year-old Sone Aluko announced his retirement and Dominic Ball, Panutche Camara, Nick Hayes, Kayden Jackson all saw their contracts expire.
Ipswich have also waved goodbye to some influential loanees as Omari Hutchinson, Kieffer Moore, Jeremy Sarmiento, Lewis Travis and Brandon Williams all returned to their parent clubs.
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Janoi Donacien will remain at the club as he continues his rehab from surgery on a hip injury. Cameron Burgess, Idris El Mizouni, Axel Tuanzebe and Christian Walton will all also remain at Portman Road after Ipswich triggered options in their contracts, and talks continue with goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky.
Nancy Froston
Leicester City
After 10 years with the club in which he won the Premier League and FA Cup, and scored Leicester’s first-ever Champions League goal, Marc Albrighton is heading for the exit.
Dennis Praet is also leaving and Torino have held a long interest in the Belgium international.
Kelechi Iheanacho is another to have said his goodbyes and the departure of Enzo Maresca has raised questions of whether Iheanacho’s Nigeria team-mate Wilfred Ndidi will sign a new contract.
However, new deals for Jamie Vardy and Jannik Vestergaard were confirmed on Friday.
Rob Tanner
Liverpool
Joel Matip and Thiago are leaving as free agents following the end of their contracts. They are currently considering their options following long spells out because of injury.
Back-up goalkeeper Adrian is also out of contract but he has been offered a new one-year deal. The veteran Spaniard has yet to make a decision over his future amid talk that he might return to play in his homeland.
Academy graduate Adam Lewis is on the released list, along with Melkamu Frauendorf and Mateusz Musialowski. That trio all made senior debuts for Liverpool during the Jurgen Klopp era, but will now pursue new challenges elsewhere.
James Pearce
Manchester City
As per their usual planning, City do not have any players out of contract this summer so attention turns to those with deals expiring next year.
The club held talks with goalkeeper Stefan Ortega earlier this season to discuss an extension because his three-year deal was to end in 2025. With the future of first-choice Ederson uncertain, Ortega’s future has become more important and on Saturday, it was confirmed he had signed an new deal up to 2026. Elsewhere in the goalkeeping department, third-choice Scott Carson has agreed another extension. The 38-year-old has been signing rolling one-year deals each summer.
The destination of Kevin De Bruyne has attracted headlines with his contract ending next summer. Every other first-team player has a contract until at least 2026.
Sam Lee
Manchester United
Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial announced their impending departures as free agents last month and said their goodbyes to the Stretford End.
Brandon Williams will also leave after United decided against triggering the one-year option in his expiring deal, while young attacking midfielder Omari Forson has been offered renewed terms but is expected to depart after no breakthrough in negotiations for months.
There is more optimism that deals can be struck with veterans Jonny Evans and Tom Heaton. Evans provided vital cover in the centre of United’s defence amid an unrelenting injury crisis, making 30 appearances in all competitions following his surprise return to Old Trafford last summer.
Mark Critchley
Newcastle
Six Newcastle players had contracts due to expire on June 30 — and only Mark Gillespie, the goalkeeper who has never made a competitive appearance under Eddie Howe, was given an extension of another 12 months.
Matt Ritchie, 34, and Paul Dummett, 32, will depart. Howe had been keen to retain the pair because of their experience and leadership skills, but Manchester United’s victory in the FA Cup final denied Newcastle a place in next season’s UEFA Conference League.
Without the additional European matches, Howe’s argument for keeping the duo weakened, given their combined 138 minutes of Premier League action across 2023-24. Dummett, an academy graduate, made 213 appearances for his boyhood club, while Ritchie played 215 times over an eight-year stint.
Loris Karius, the 30-year-old former Liverpool goalkeeper, will also leave. Kell Watts, the 24-year-old defender who progressed through Newcastle’s academy, will be released, as will Jeff Hendrick, the 32-year-old Ireland midfielder.
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Karius is expected to head to Italy where his partner, Diletta Leotta, is from, while Dummett, Ritchie, Hendrick and Watts are likely to head to EFL clubs.
Chris Waugh
Nottingham Forest
Forest were quick to agree a new deal with Willy Boly, with the experienced defender regarded as being an important figure by Nuno Espirito Santo. Forest also took up the option of extending full-back Ola Aina’s contract into next season.
Otherwise, six senior players will leave, with few real surprises among them. Forest had previously announced Wayne Hennessey, Cheikhou Kouyate and Felipe, who has retired, would leave.
Their official retained list confirmed that forgotten man Harry Arter — who had not played a first-team game since January 2021 — will also leave, along with Scotland international Scott McKenna, who has been on loan at Copenhagen, and fellow defender Loic Mbe Soh, who has been on loan with Almere City.
Paul Taylor
Southampton
Southampton will wave goodbye to a popular player this month after they announced Stuart Armstrong will depart St Mary’s at the end of his contract.
The 32-year-old midfielder missed Southampton’s 1-0 play-off final win over Leeds last month with a muscle injury to his quadriceps although there is a chance he will be fit to feature at Euro 2024 for Scotland. Armstrong joined Southampton in 2018 and made 214 appearances, scoring 25 goals.
Talks continue with two other key first-team players, with striker Che Adams and goalkeeper Alex McCarthy’s contracts both due to expire this summer. Keeping hold of Adams looks to be a challenge for Russell Martin amid interest from other Premier League clubs.
Jake Vokins, Dynel Simeu, Matt Carson and Luke Pearce are also out of contract and will leave this summer.
Nancy Froston
Tottenham
There were no major surprises when Spurs announced their released and retained lists on Wednesday morning.
As The Athletic reported in February, Eric Dier’s loan move to Bayern Munich will become permanent, while Ivan Perisic seemed similarly destined to complete a permanent move to boyhood club Hajduk Split.
The future is currently a bit less clear for Ryan Sessegnon. The full-back arrived from Fulham in 2019 for £25million, at the time deemed one of the hottest prospects in English football. But his five years at Spurs have been injury-ravaged, and now the 24-year-old is looking for a fresh start.
Spurs academy graduate Japhet Tanganga has had a similarly injury-blighted few years. He was at times a useful squad option under various Spurs managers, filling in right across the defence, but he now leaves the club having started just four Premier League matches since the start of 2022.
Goalkeeper Brandon Austin last week signed a new contract running to 2029.
Jay Harris
West Ham
West Ham have released defender Angelo Ogbonna, 36, and goalkeeper Joseph Anang, 23. Ogbonna made 249 appearances, having joined from Juventus in the summer of 2015. Anang failed to make a first-team appearance.
Ben Johnson, 24, and Divin Mubama, 19, remain in talks over potential new deals. The duo have rejected multiple contract offers, with their deals set to expire at the end of June. Johnson has attracted interest from Leeds United, Crystal Palace and Rangers, while Championship side Sunderland have expressed interest in signing Mubama.
Aaron Cresswell’s deal was set to expire, but he has signed a one-year contract extension.
Academy players Jacob Knightbridge, 20, Keenan Appiah-Forson, 22, Dan Chesters, 22, Liam Jones, 18, Jerry Umolu, 18, Seb Boothe, 17, and Blaise Uwandji, 18, have also been released.
Roshane Thomas
Wolves
Wolves find themselves this summer in the unusual position of having no senior players out of contract, so all eyes will be on the trio of established figures entering the final year of their deals.
Craig Dawson appears to be the easiest of the three to resolve. Having just turned 34 and with 18 months of excellent service for Wolves behind him, a new one-year deal, possibly with an appearance-related option, seems like a no-brainer.
Pablo Sarabia is tougher because his form fluctuated, so Wolves might choose to cash in while they still can.
But the most delicate situation concerns Nelson Semedo, whose value is high so will have to sign a new deal or be sold this summer.
Steve Madeley
(Top photos: Getty Images)