Welling United can confirm the departures of Garrett Kelly, Javarn Pitterson, Daniel Jinadu and Mitchel Bergkamp, while Paul Osew, Anointed Chukwu and Ben Wells have been made available for transfer.
Due to budget constraints compounded by a number of injuries within the squad since the start of the 2024/25 campaign, a decision has been made to realign the squad to ensure a sustainable budget.
Wings boss Rod Stringer explained: “We’re having to trim the squad because we’ve been outside of the budget since the start of the season due to injuries that have been picked up and we’re not able to sustain paying out more than what the club had budgeted for this season.
“We appreciate that Howard and the club have backed us the best they can, but now we have to trim the squad down to a minimum to be able for us to continue to work within the budget that the club can afford.
“Some of that, of course, is due to going out of the FA Cup and FA Trophy early and, unfortunately, the gates have not been what we may have predicted this season.
“Obviously from my point of view, and the staff, we didn’t want this to happen – but we’ve had to look at the overload of midfielders which has seen us say goodbye to Garrett Kelly and Ben Wells.
“We’ve also had to lose a forward and we’ve made the decision to stick with Martell Taylor-Crossdale and Josh Redfearn, with Elliot Long and Zain Walker who can also play in those areas, which means we’ll be saying goodbye to Anointed Chukwu, while Paul Osew’s contract was set to be up at the end of December, but we’ve brought that forward by a month.
“We’d like to thank all of those players for their time with us and wish them all the best for the future. We’ll do everything we can to help them find new clubs and they’ll always be welcome back at Park View Road.
“We will now work with a smaller squad that fits within our playing budget and are confident that we’ll succeed with our targets between now and the end of the season.
“Finally, I’d like to thank the fans for their support, so far, this season. It hasn’t been easy at times, but we’ve shown what we can achieve, both last season and this, when we all pull together.
“Keep coming down to get behind us at Park View Road – bring your friends and your family – because your support goes a long way in helping this club both on and off the pitch.”
The Wings return to action at Park View Road on Saturday, December 14th (3pm) when they take on Bath City as the club celebrates Christmas Community Day.
Click here to purchase your tickets for the Wings v Bath City
