After almost every other club below the Championship had already announced their retained/released list, Dale finally followed suit on Wednesday afternoon.

First of all, there was another surprise when it came to be known that despite Dale having announced that Conor Shaughnessy had signed an 18-month deal in January, this wasn’t strictly true but then again, is anything the club says true anymore? Shaughnessy had signed a 6-month deal with an option of another year in the players favour. The Irishman rejected this and will be leaving Spotland.

Also released are:

Ryan McLaughlin — The Northern Ireland international leaves Dale after an injury plagued two and half years in which he only managed to play 55 times in all competitions following his move from Blackpool.

Paul McShane — The former Republic of Ireland international joined in October 2019 but much like McLaughlin, has simply not been able to play enough games and the 35-year-old has only managed to play 37 times, scoring once.

Jimmy Ryan — There’s a theme here isn’t there? After signing from Blackpool in the summer of 2019, the 32-year-old midfielder has missed most of this season through injury. He leaves Dale having played 51 games, scoring once.

Academy graduates, Harrison Hopper, Lewis Bradley and Keaton Mulvey have also been released by the club.

We would like to wish all the players released the best with their futures and thank them for their contribution.

This does mean that we’ve offered contracts to club captain Eoghan O’Connell, this season’s top goalscorer Matty Lund, Swiss Army Jimmy Keohane, Matty Done, Jay Lynch and Stephen Dooley while Jim McNulty has also been offered a player/coach role. An option has been taken up on Joe Dunne’s deal as well meaning he’s staying for another year.

The following players are contracted for next season but following our relegation, this doesn’t necessarily mean they will stay:

Aaron Morley
Stephen Humphrys
Alex Newby
Jake Beesley
Ollie Rathbone
Conor Grant
Ethan Brierley
Abraham Odoh
Brad Wade

Academy players Peter Thomas and goalkeeper Brad Kelly have been offered early professional contracts while all second-year academy players have been released.

Photo: Action Images

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