WANDERERS shaved-off an incredible £5 million-plus from their annual wage bill yesterday by releasing 13 players from the books.

Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan, Jermaine Beckford, Keith Andrews and Craig Davies were the biggest casualties of a cull which will save the club more than £100,000 a week.

Wanderers had the Championship’s biggest wage bill at £37.4m in their first season after relegation from the Premier League but have now brought that down by around 35 per cent in two years.

Not only has that helped the club fall into line with Financial Fair Play but it is hoped the most recent cuts will give Neil Lennon some breathing room in his budget this summer to repair a squad that has looked painfully thin in some positions over the last few months.

He will definitely be looking for a new club captain after the departure of Mills, who played 41 games for the club this season.

And with Lonergan also gone, extra emphasis has now been placed on contract negotiations with number one goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, which are no nearer a conclusion.

Manchester United’s Ben Amos remains an option for Wanderers in the summer if the Hungary international turns down the contract offer currently on the table.

The decision to release Wales international Davies came as the biggest surprise to Wanderers fans but was almost certainly based on his chequered fitness history with the club which restricted him to just three starts since December 6.

Two of the squad’s biggest earners, Beckford and Andrews, have been on loan elsewhere at Preston North End and MK Dons respectively and their exit had been mooted for some time.

But there was also a clear-out of younger players, with Chris Lester, Georg Iliev, Luke Woodland, Glenn Matthews, Ryan Sellers, James Ball, Carl Kennedy and Kieran Nolan all cleared to move on to pastures new.

As expected, Wanderers also confirmed that contract talks are ongoing with midfielder Darren Pratley and veteran strike pair Eidur Gudjohnsen and Emile Heskey.

Wanderers will release details of their pre-season schedule early next week but two dates have already been made public, with a trip to League One Port Vale planned for Tuesday, July 18.

A Whites XI will also visit Alder House on July 4 to face Michael Clegg’s recently-promoted Atherton Colls.