ALBION RELEASE SNEEKES AND VAN BLERK
Long-serving defender Daryl Burgess, who has just enjoyed his testimonial season this term, and Matt Carbon are also set to leave The Hawthorns on Bosman free transfers.
The other professional on the Albion books whose contract expired, rookie goalkeeper Elliot Morris, has been offered a new one-year deal.
Although expected, the decision to release Sneekes leaves Albion with a hole to fill in his midfield as he has been one of their most consistent performers for the last five years.
The former Ajax ace will be best remembered for his first three months at the club when, following his £400,000 switch from Bolton, he scored ten times in 13 games to almost single-handedly keep the club in the Second Division.
Van Blerk's departure, meanwhile, leaves Albion extremely barren on the left flank, with Neil Clement the only natural on this side of the field.
The decisions to release centre halves Burgess and Carbon were expected as neither has had much playing time in the latter half of the season and Megson recently strengthened this position by buying Phil Gilchrist.
Megson explained this position to the club's official website, saying
"We've offered Elliott a one-year deal with a one-year option, which we think he will sign," Megson said. "Elliott's a promising young goalkeeper who we would like to see develop over that period.
"In the case of the other four players, we will not be making any offer of re-engagement with the club.
"It's never a nice time of the year at any club, and we do thank all of those players for their efforts for the club, not just this season but throughout their time here.
"Daryl has been a wonderful servant to the club, but he only made one first team start this season and we need to bring in players who are going to push for more starts than that.
"Matt hasn't been a regular either, so again we need players here who will demand a first team place.
"With Richard and Jason, new contracts for them would mean they'd be 34 by the time those contracts ended and we felt that that wasn't the way this club should be going, particularly with Bob Taylor and Ruel Fox at the club who are the same sort of age.
"The reduction in the wage bill means that we will be able to bring in new players in the summer within the budget that we have.
"I'm not going to put a figure on the number of players I'd like to bring in, because that limits you.
"We won't necessarily be looking at like for like signings - with Daryl and Matt leaving, we do already have other centre-halves, so we may not be looking for direct replacements.
"Obviously with Jason leaving, we will be looking at bringing someone in on the left-hand side.
"These aren't nice decisions to make, and again the club does thank all four of those players for their efforts, but we have to be prepared to make decisions to ensure that the club continues to go forward."