Maidenhead United retain core of last season's squad for the 2023/24 campaign

Maidenhead United have finally released their retained list for the forthcoming National League season and, while they've managed to convince many players to re-engage on their current terms, there have been some notable departures.

Manager Alan Devonshire will have been delighted to have extended the contracts of Emile Acquah, Charlie Adams, Will De Havilland, Remy Clerima, Temi Eweka, Alan Massey, Shawn McCoulsky and Ashley Nathaniel-George for the 2023/24 campaign, while defender Kevin Lokko recently became the Magpies first signing of the summer.

In addition to this, Zico Asare, Sam Beckwith, Kane Ferdinand, Christian Johnson, Brad Keetch and Reece Smith had already committed their future to the club for the upcoming season.

However, 10 players are set to depart York Road this summer, including both goalkeepers, Dan Gyollai and Alexis Andre Jr. Gyollai has been a reliable presence between the sticks in the past two seasons, but missed the second half of the campaign with an ACL knee injury and would likely have been a major doubt for the start of the campaign anyway.

Last week, a couple of Magpies favourites, Sam Barratt and Ryan Upward announced on social media they'd be leaving the club this summer, with Barratt heading to United's league rivals Barnet and Upward joining Farnborough.

In addition to this Adrian Clifton has left and signed for Dulwich Hamlet, who've been relegated to step 3. His game time at Maidenhead last season was limited and it was a similar story for Koby Arthur, Samson Esan and late season signing Bruno Andrade, who have also left the club.

Two players fans may be disappointed to see leave are Cole Kpekawa and Dan Sparkes. Both players missed much of last season through injury but contributed plenty when fit and firing for the Magpies in recent campaigns. Kpekawa as a goal-scoring centre half and left sided defender and Sparkes with his dangerous crosses and set-pieces and eye for goal from free-kicks.

In a short statement released on Saturday, Maidenhead United said: “We would like to place on record thanks to those departing York Road and wish them the very best.”

United's chief scout Lee Devonshire and manager Alan Devonshire will now look to replace those departing players and mould a squad capable of National League survival as a bare minimum. Should they manage to acquire all their summer targets, the club's ambitions may even be loftier than that. The National League is sure to be extremely competitive once again, but it has seen a couple of its powerhouses - Notts County and champions Wrexham - promoted to the football league.