25/26 Academy retained list
Charlton Athletic can now announce their end-of-season academy retained list.
The following U21s players remain under contract:
Kai Enslin, George Hardy, Josh Hebert, Josh Laqeretabua, Alan Mwamba, Henry Rylah, Manu Wales.
The club have taken up options to extend the contracts of Ethan Brown, Ty Ewens-Findlay and Jacob Safa, while Patrick Casey has been offered a new deal.
The following U21s players, whose contracts are set to expire this summer, have not been offered a new contract:
Reuben Amissah, Toby Bower, Ollie Hobden, Mason Hunter, Max Kuczynski, Paris Lock, Lennon MacLorg, Tommy Reid.
The following U18s players remain under contract:
Jack Belton, Shia-Lee Burnham, Dionte Davis, Tate Elliott, Ellis McMillan, Nehmani McNamee-Burke, Marley Rayment-Dawkins, Reuben Reid, Emmanuel Sol-Loza, Bradley Tagoe, Phoenix Valentine, Sam Washington-Amoah, Finley Woodham.
The following U18s player will leave the club this summer:
Lanre Olatunji.
An update on the club’s new intake of first-year scholars will be announced in due course.
The club would like to thank every departing player for their efforts throughout their time at Charlton Athletic and wishes them well for their future careers.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/202526-academy-retained-list
Comments
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Glad they have done this, this year. Thought it was pretty poor form of the club to have not done similar in terms of wishing players the best last summer.
Interesting we have offered Pat Casey a new deal, would like to see him stay he clearly has that natural strikers instinct, seems too early to give up on him yet. Although of course offering him a deal could just be driving a small fee from a club he goes to through a tribunal.1 -
The club's going to make a fortune on shirts, when they're charging per letter for names like Nehmani McNamee-Burke, Marley Rayment-Dawkins, Emmanuel Sol-Loza and Sam Washington-Amoah.7
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No real surprises. All the released players looked like non league is their ceiling.0
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Can be pretty brutal having your dreams shattered at such a young age. Hope the lads that are leaving have some good support.
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Ruthless from Chris Lock releasing his son Paris. Can't have been easy for him.
As stated by Jason Pearce at Bromley Addicks almost the entire U18 squad retained.
Agree that contract offer to Casey maybe to get a small fee as he did well at Dorking.
Will be interesting to see how Kai Enslin, Josh Laqeretabua and Henry Rylah fit in after their loans. Still need to convince they are able to step up.
U21 squad will be very young next year with this years U18 making up the bulk of the squad so not expecting too much.9 -
Which is why it can be a "no win" situation when being in charge and having a relative on the books. Keeping Paris, however promising he might be and there will always be an accusation of nepotism from someone but releasing him might affect the family unit. Chris has said that he is much tougher on Paris than the other players and that is another reason for there to be distance between father and son.Henry Irving said:Ruthless from Chris Lock releasing his son Paris. Can't have been easy for him.
As stated by Jason Pearce at Bromley Addicks almost the entire U18 squad retained.
Agree that contract offer to Casey maybe to get a small fee as he did well at Dorking.
Will be interesting to see how Kai Enslin, Josh Laqeretabua and Henry Rylah fit in after there loans. Still need to convince they are able to step up.
U21 squad will be very young next year with this years U18 making up the bulk of the squad so not expecting too much.
Hope Paris goes on to, in the nicest possible way, prove his dad wrong and I'm sure that if he does then Chris will be at the head of the queue to congratulate Paris in achieving that.3 -
Just a slight reminder (not to you specifically Henry) that Rylah's loan runs until DecemberHenry Irving said:Ruthless from Chris Lock releasing his son Paris. Can't have been easy for him.
As stated by Jason Pearce at Bromley Addicks almost the entire U18 squad retained.
Agree that contract offer to Casey maybe to get a small fee as he did well at Dorking.
Will be interesting to see how Kai Enslin, Josh Laqeretabua and Henry Rylah fit in after their loans. Still need to convince they are able to step up.
U21 squad will be very young next year with this years U18 making up the bulk of the squad so not expecting too much.0 -
Best wishes to all those released.
Join CAST's Q&A with Academy head Greg Miller this Thursday at 7.30pm to hear more about the challenges of retaining and releasing young players, with additional guests Head of Education Joe Francis and U18 player Ed Thomas.
Free and open to all CAFC fans: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OMwFbUUbQESpSX2A_Ui16A1 -
Good luck to those released. No real surprises, hopefully they can find new clubs and work their way up. None of them would have been knocking on the door for our first team in the near future. At 19-21 there's only so long we can hold on to players in the hope they'll develop.
On the u18s, only Reid, Sol-Loza and Washington-Amoah had already signed pro (unless any hadn't been announced), so it's a real positive that all but one of the remaining 2nd years have impressed enough to move into the u21s next season.
Extensions for Brown and Safa are well deserved, they've settled into u21 football having made the step up this season and look steady players at that level.
Ewens-Findlay has looked the best of the u21s signed from other clubs last summer, it'll be interesting to see how he progresses. His passing range with either foot from centre back really stood out in recent u21 streams, and he looks like he has the physicality needed in that position too. Those long passes really remind me of players like Gillesphey and Llera.
Hopefully Enslin, Laqeretabua and Casey (if he stays) can find loans higher up the pyramid next season. They've progressed beyond u21 football and I think they've shown enough that we should stick with them a bit longer. It would also be good to see a first loan for Mwamba in the EFL.6 -
Good luck to Toby Bower. He had a bad run of injuries.
Great left foot worked so well for free kicks, corners and penalties.
Wishing hime well.9 -
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Why is Richman not on these lists?0
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That’s right, those on this list haven’t been mentioned as they’re 1st years moving to 2nd year u18s next season. By the summer if not already they’ll be 17 so the club can offer pro deals if they want to.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-202526
Richman’s the obvious one to get signed up.
Ezenwata’s not on there as he’s the year below, so can’t sign pro until he turns 17 later on next season.2 -
That’s the missing piece in my knowledge. I’d always assumed they could sign a contract once they turned 16. Now it makes sense.Scoham said:That’s right, those on this list haven’t been mentioned as they’re 1st years moving to 2nd year u18s next season. By the summer if not already they’ll be 17 so the club can offer pro deals if they want to.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-202526
Richman’s the obvious one to get signed up.
Ezenwata’s not on there as he’s the year below, so can’t sign pro until he turns 17 later on next season.1 -
Just a reminder of the first year academy signings.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-2025262 -
Thanks. I really enjoyed that introduction to our future stars.Crusty54 said:Just a reminder of the first year academy signings.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-2025260 -
Scoham said:That’s right, those on this list haven’t been mentioned as they’re 1st years moving to 2nd year u18s next season. By the summer if not already they’ll be 17 so the club can offer pro deals if they want to.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-202526
Richman’s the obvious one to get signed up.
Ezenwata’s not on there as he’s the year below, so can’t sign pro until he turns 17 later on next season.
I would put money on Ezenwata leaving this summer. Highly thought of, already trained with the first team; his brother went to Chelsea I think last summer at a time we lost about 5-6 of our kids up and down the country.
In years gone by I would have watched on with some excitement to see if he made it with us, now it's not worth getting too interested sadly.0 -
Yeah I’m surprised he’s still here, was called up for one of the England youth sides too.Athletico Charlton said:Scoham said:That’s right, those on this list haven’t been mentioned as they’re 1st years moving to 2nd year u18s next season. By the summer if not already they’ll be 17 so the club can offer pro deals if they want to.
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/first-year-scholars-confirmed-202526
Richman’s the obvious one to get signed up.
Ezenwata’s not on there as he’s the year below, so can’t sign pro until he turns 17 later on next season.
I would put money on Ezenwata leaving this summer. Highly thought of, already trained with the first team; his brother went to Chelsea I think last summer at a time we lost about 5-6 of our kids up and down the country.
In years gone by I would have watched on with some excitement to see if he made it with us, now it's not worth getting too interested sadly.
I hope it’s a topic that’s discussed at the CAST event tomorrow night.
Not sure it’s ever been as bad as this:
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