Huddersfield Town have chosen not to offer Karim Matmour a new contract.
The John Smith’s Stadium club have confirmed the Retained List of players at the end of the 2015/16 season, and while the option has been taken to extend Jonathan Hogg and Martin Cranie’s deals by a further year, Algerian forward Matmour is a surprise departure.
The 30-year-old made 16 appearances for Town, scoring once in the 4-1 derby thumping of Leeds United.
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Ishmael Miller is also set to leave after not being offered a new deal, while James Vaughan will complete his permanent move to Birmingham City.
Manager David Wagner has confirmed he would like to keep Jamie Paterson, but will explore other options in case a deal cannot be concluded for the Nottingham Forest man.
Said Wagner: “We have made good decisions on our out of contract players based on our six months together. We told most of the players who are not getting a new contact a couple of weeks ago, with the decision on Karim Matmour being made at the weekend.
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“It is not easy to make these decisions, especially as many of the players have been at Huddersfield for a long time. A lot of the players have potential, but it is time for the likes of Duane Holmes, Lloyd Allinson and others to go forward and make the next step at another club and play senior football.”
Decisions have also been reached on u21 and u18 players, with Duane Holmes and Lloyd Allinson among those now searching for new clubs.
And the exits also leave room for some summer incomings.
The Town boss added: “These decisions will give us enough space for a few new signings, including the three we have already made (Rajiv van La Parra, Chris Löwe and Michael Hefele).
“As I said on Saturday, we want to push this Club forward and one of the ways we will do this is to get some new players, as well as develop our interesting players.
“We are going into a very interesting season where the British Championship has no Emergency Loan window so we have to make sure our squad is big enough, without being too big. We need enough competition. We need players who are full of quality and hungry to play here.”
Town’s full Retained List is as follows:
Option taken to extend contract by one season
Jonathan Hogg
Martin Cranie
Jack Senior
Fraser Horsfall
Tadhg Ryan
Offered contract
Joe Wright
William Boyle
Sam Warde
Jamie Spencer
Dylan Cogill
Released
Karim Matmour
Ishmael Miller
James Vaughan
Duane Holmes
Lloyd Allinson
Joe Wilkinson
Ben Holmes
Ed Wilczynski
Sam Guthrie
Callum Charlton
Returned to parent club at conclusion of loan
Jed Steer
Jamie Paterson
Emyr Huws
All players not on the list are still under contract at the Club for the 2016/17 season