Swindon Town release retained list following end to 2016-17 season

Swindon Town captain Nathan Thompson is the standout departure of the list of players that have left the club today.

Thompson is one of 13 players, not including loanees, that have now left the County Ground at the expiration of their contracts.

He is joined by fellow defenders Raphael Rossi-Branco, Brad Barry, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, and Jamie Sendles-White, as well as midfielders Anton Rodgers, Yaser Kasim, Ellis Iandolo, Jordan Stewart, Tom Smith and Jake Evans.

Strikers Jon Obika and Jermaine Hylton have also both been told that their Swindon careers have come to an end.

Loan players Fankaty Dabo, Charlie Colkett and Islam Feruz (all Chelsea), Lloyd Jones (Liverpool), Rohan Ince (Brighton), Ben Gladwin (QPR) and Nicky Ajose (Charlton) have all returned to their parent clubs.

Chester-born Thompson signed his first professional contract at Swindon in April 2009, aged 19, and leaves at the age of 26 having made 175 appearances for the club, scoring four goals in the process, and once led the Robins to a League One play-off final as skipper.

Branco, Kasim, Rodgers, Obika and Hylton were all also part of that play-off final squad of 2014-15 with Kasim and Obika in particular playing key roles in the route to Wembley.

Obika played 75 games for Town and scored 28 goals over three seasons while Hylton, who signed from Redditch in January 2015, only found the back of the net once.

Kasim featured over 100 times in Swindon red, and scored eight times but found himself out of favour towards the end of the last campaign, largely due to injury.

Rodgers and vice captain Branco were much-maligned by Swindon fans, as was left-back Ormonde-Ottewill, but regardless the trio played 115 games between them.

Sendles-White signed in January 2016 and made a positive impact, but cruelly had his season ended in September last year by an ACL injury and has not been offered a new deal while he continues his rehab.

Barry and Iandolo had options in their contracts that would have kept them in Wiltshire if the club triggered them, but Swindon decided against it and those two leave as well.

Smith and Evans have both been on loan at Irish second division club Waterford, also owned by Town chairman Lee Power, but neither have been kept on, while Stewart leaves two years after signing from Northern Irish side Glentoran for an undisclosed fee.

Today's releasing of players leaves Swindon with just 12 contracted senior members going into pre-season.

Contracted Swindon players for next season:

Goalkeepers: Lawrence Vigouroux (2019), Will Henry (2018)

Defenders: Dion Conroy (2019), James Brophy (2018)

Midfielders: Conor Thomas (2019), Johnny Goddard (2019), Jesse Starkey (2018), Ellis Iandolo (2018)

Strikers: Luke Norris (2019), Jordan Young (2019)