The Watford trio join the Championship free agent market as Stoke City look for transfer bargains

Jake Livermore, Ben Hamer and Ashley Fletcher have been released by Watford as Championship clubs ramp up their free agent market.

Livermore, 34, has featured fairly regularly since joining from West Brom last summer, while Fletcher, 28, has never started at Vicarage Road since joining from Middlesbrough in 2021. He has spent time on loan at New York Red Bulls, Wigan Athletic and, last season, Sheffield Wednesday.

It comes as all clubs excluding those involved in the play-offs had to meet a May 18 deadline to submit their list of players who are contracted or have been offered offers to the EFL. Most have now been made public, including Burnley and Sheffield United coming from the Premier League and Portsmouth, Derby County and Oxford United.

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Erik Pieters has joined a growing list of former Stoke City players looking for a new club this summer. Pieters, Stoke’s former Premier League left-back who has played as a central midfielder for Albion for the past two seasons, joins Danny Batth, Scott Hogan, Dwight Gayle and Sam Clucas in the free agent market, while Joe Allen penned a new deal at Swansea and Lee Gregory left Sheffield Wednesday and was linked with Mansfield Town.

It’s a stunning list kept for play-off semi-finalists Albion, with 14 players released – including seven first-teamers – and 11 contracts on offer at the start of what will be a summer overhaul. Matt Phillips departs after eight seasons, as do Nathaniel Chalobah, Yann M’Vila, Adam Reach, Martin Kelly and Jovan Malcolm

Main midfielder Alex Mowatt and first-choice central pair Kyle Bartley and Cedric Kipre are also out of contract and will be offered new terms, although West Brom will be forced to cut back as they enter a season without pay with the parachute.