Five youngsters sign first professional deals with Wanderers

Wanderers have announced that five Academy players have signed their first professional deals with the club.

Jack Dallimore, Sean Hogan, Joe Toole, James Westwood and Harrison Fleury will all step up from the youth ranks to join Andy Taylor’s B Team squad.

Yestin Shakespear has also extended his stay as a third-year scholar after part of his original scholarship was hampered by injury.

Meanwhile, Sonny Sharples-Ahmed and Noah Halford have signed extensions to remain in the B Team set-up. The pair turned professional last summer.

The Whites “remain in talks” with Wes Frimpong over a potential new deal and are set to add a couple more players to the group this summer.

“It’s important to keep moving things forward and growing what is a real project,” said Taylor, who took charge of the B Team following Matt Craddock’s promotion to the first team.

“I believe we have some highly talented young players at the club who we want to keep nurturing and developing with a long-term goal of hopefully producing first-team players of the future.

“The lads who have signed their new contracts today fall into that category and congratulations to them on taking the next step along the way.

“We will also add one or two more to the squad to keep building the quality and potential where we can and I’m looking forward to working with them all – alongside Tutty (Andrew Tutte) – again this season as part of the long-term strategy of player development.”

Several pre-season friendlies have been announced for the B Team so far, with Taylor’s side travelling to Workington on Tuesday, July 30 (7.30pm).

The young Whites also make the short trip to the Skuna Stadium to face Atherton Colls on Saturday, August 3 (3pm) before heading to Stoke City on Tuesday, August 6 (1pm).

Tutte will continue to assist Taylor in the dugout, having taken up a player-coach role in the summer of 2022.