Everton to release four senior players

Everton have confirmed a quartet of senior out-of-contract players will not be offered fresh terms and will leave the club when their current deals expire at the end of June.

Joshua King, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie and Muhamed Besic will all depart, while loanee goalkeeper Robin Olsen will also return to parent club Roma.

Forward King joined Everton from Bournemouth in February for a nominal fee, but failed to score in his 11 appearances for the club, all of which came from the bench.

Walcott, who arrived at Goodison Park in January 2018 from Arsenal in a £20 million deal, spent the 2020-21 campaign on loan at former club Southampton and has already agreed a permanent return to the Saints.

Bolasie was one of Ronald Koeman’s first Everton signings when he left Crystal Palace for Merseyside in August 2016 for roughly £25 million, but made only 32 appearances for the club, the last of which came in May 2018.

Besic is the longest-serving Everton player of the four, having been signed from Ferencvaros by Roberto Martinez in July 2014, but enjoyed just 56 outings for the club.

Swedish stopper Olsen featured 11 times for Everton following his loan move from Roma in October.

Also departing are under-23s players Josh Bowler, Dennis Adeniran, Matthew Pennington (who has already made his Shrewsbury loan permanent), Con Ouzounidis, Callum Connolly and Bobby Carroll.

Nathan Broadhead, Ryan Astley and Joe Anderson have all been offered new deals, while Everton have taken the option to extend Kyle John’s contract until June 2022.

From the under-18s, Daniel Lowey, Jack McIntyre and Dylan Thompson have been let go, while Liam Higgins has had his scholarship extended for a third year.