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Roberts and Hogan among five to leave Birmingham

Scott Hogan playing for BirminghamImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Scott Hogan scored 36 goals in 158 games for Birmingham

  • Published

Birmingham City are releasing five players following the club's relegation from the Championship.

Marc Roberts, Scott Hogan, Ivan Sunjic, Gary Gardner and Neil Etheridge will all leave Blues when their contracts expire.

But experienced duo Lukas Jutkiewicz and John Ruddy have both been offered new deals.

Blues will play third-tier football next season for the first time in 29 years.

Between them, the five players to leave St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park have amassed 795 games for the club.

All five have been at the club for at least four seasons, although in that period Birmingham have never finished higher than 17th.

But their departures are part of a big rebuilding job across the squad following a disastrous season which culminated in relegation on the final day.

They sacked John Eustace in October when sixth in the league, and then had a terrible spell under Wayne Rooney before he left in January.

His replacement Tony Mowbray was taken ill in February and had to stand down with interim manager Gary Rowett unable to pick up enough points in the last eight games to keep them up.