EFL club in 'catastrophic' peril release former £1m Aston Villa wonderkid

Former Aston Villa defender Jacob Bedeau is one of 16 players to have left Morecambe at the end of their contracts, with the Shrimps left in a potentially 'catastrophic' situation. That's the fear of the board, who have written an open letter to owner Jason Whittingham - previously of defunct rugby union side Worcester Warriors - demanding he invests or sells up.

Morecambe finished the recently ended season in 15th in League Two, having earned 61 points, well clear of the bottom two - but they were the subject of a three-point deduction last season for not paying their players on time last August. Manager Ged Brannan has recently left to become assistant manager at Accrington Stanley, while chief executive Ben Sadler left to join Walsall.

Amid the disarray, the club have released 12 players at the end of the season, while four others - who were offered contracts - have rejected deals put to them, bringing the total of departures up to a remarkable 16. They've triggered the option in the contract of another player, while an academy product has agreed his first professional terms. Add in the three existing contracted players, and Morecambe currently have five senior players on their books.

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For Bedeau, there is already interest in League Two and also reportedly in Scotland. The centre half, who is still only 24, made 117 appearances for the Shrimps having initially joined on loan from Burnley in January 2022 - that includes 49 appearances in all competitions this previous season.

He was snapped up during Steve Bruce's tenure at Aston Villa, in the January window of 2017, signing from Bury - a side whose fate Morecambe will be hoping not to follow - for a fee in the region of £1m and was considered at that stage to be a real prospect for the future, but Bedeau never managed to make a first-team appearance during his time in claret and blue and in January 2019 he was permitted to join Scunthorpe United.

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Like Villa, Burnley saw something in Bedeau's abilities because they offered him a contract in the summer of 2021, but he was allowed to leave for Morecambe - where he'd spent the second half of the 2021-22 season on loan - on a permanent basis.

For whatever reason, Bedeau failed to make the grade at Villa. He was a regular in the under-23s under Kevin MacDonald and Mark Delaney, and often looked impressive alongside central defensive partner Easah Suliman. Neither Steve Bruce or Dean Smith promoted him to the first team though, and Villa cut their losses in January 2019.