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Ayman Benarous featured for Bristol City U21s in their draw with Millwall(Image: Photo by Rogan\/Bristol City)<\/p>\nBristol City have confirmed that seven players will be leaving Ashton Gate upon the expiry of their contracts this summerAyman Benarous featured for Bristol City U21s in their draw with Millwall(Image: Photo by Rogan\/Bristol City)<\/p>\n
Bristol City have confirmed that seven players will be leaving the club this summer following the expiration of their contracts at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n
Stefan Bajic, Ayman Benarous, Kal Naismith, Kai Churchley, Tim Ap Sion, Marley Rose, Romani Rowe and Callum Wood will all depart BS3, while Nahki Wells, Lewis Thomas, Olly Thomas, Joe Duncan and Raphael Araoye are in negotiations over extending their stay with the Robins.<\/p>\n
Though Wells told Bristol Live just last week that his future remained “very uncertain” both Liam Manning and the striker himself have been open about their desire to extend the Bermudian international’s stay at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Reds have confirmed the end of George Earthy’s loan deal, with the attacking midfielder returning to West Ham United, having scored three goals for City in 37 Championship appearances.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Bristol City yet to receive approach from Norwich City for head coach Liam Manning amid reports<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City U18s 2-1 Watford U18s recap: Reds crowned PDL National champions at Ashton Gate<\/a><\/p>\n Bajic arrived at Ashton Gate in the summer of 2022, making his Robins debut in the Carabao Cup against Lincoln later that same year. While the Frenchman spent six months on loan at Valenciennes, he has spent the majority of his time with the Reds as the second choice keeper behind Max O’Leary and departs the West Country with just two competitive first team appearances to his name.<\/p>\n Naismith joined City in the same summer and went on to make 52 appearances in red and white. The Scotsman has struggled with injury throughout his time at Ashton Gate, but when fit, under Nigel Pearson, he was a regular fixture of the backline and one of the leaders in a relatively young Robins squad. The 33-year-old has spent the second half of the season on loan with Luton Town, and Manning confirmed that the purpose of that loan was to give the versatile defender the best chance of securing a new contract.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n Benarous is a product of the City academy who broke into the first team during Nigel Pearson’s time in charge of the Reds. Over the course of the 2021\/22 season, he made 11 Championship appearances, but back-to-back ACLs and a string of injuries have meant that the 21-year-old hasn’t played in a competitive first-team fixture for more than three years.<\/p>\n Churchley, Ap Sion, Rose, Rowe and Wood have all been regular fixtures of the Robins’ Under-21s squad in recent seasons, but make up the group of four academy players released this term.<\/p>\n Wells is one of the longest-serving players in Manning’s side, having made 237 appearances and scored 48 goals for City since he made the move to BS3 from Burnley in 2020. The 34-year-old last put pen to paper on a new deal in the winter of 2022, and there appears to be a willingness on both the player and Manning’s side to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n Lewis Thomas is yet to make a competitive appearance in red and white but has been the Reds’ third-choice keeper since joining their ranks in South Bristol in 2023. He, as well as Araoye, Olly Thomas and Duncan, like Wells remain in talks over a new deal.<\/p>\n In the statement shared by the club on Saturday afternoon, City said: ‘All our released players will leave with the club’s best wishes and thanks for their contributions.’<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘It’s been an honour’ – Bristol City favourite issues message after end of Robins loan spell<\/a>READ MORE: Liam Manning details Semenyo comparison after Sinclair Armstrong’s ‘bitty’ Bristol City season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City have confirmed that seven players will be leaving Ashton Gate upon the expiry of their contracts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,10648,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-108854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-bristol-live","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114522854770400945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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