Sixteen players, including former Villa defender Jacob Bedeau, left Morecambe at the conclusion of their contracts, leaving the Shrimps in a possibly “catastrophic” predicament. The board is afraid of this, which is why they have demanded in an open letter to owner Jason Whittingham—formerly of the Worcester Warriors, a former rugby union team—that he invest or sell up.
With 61 points at the end of the season, Morecambe finished considerably above the bottom two in League Two. However, they were docked three points for not paying its players on time in August of the previous year. Ben Sadler, the chief executive, recently left to join Walsall, while manager Ged Brannan moved to Accrington Stanley as assistant manager.
Twelve players were let go by the club at the end of the season due to the chaos, and four more players who were given contracts turned them down, making a total of sixteen players gone. They’ve activated another player’s contract option, and an academy product has signed his first professional contract. With the three current players under contract added, Morecambe’s roster currently consists of five senior players.
League Two and apparently Scotland are already showing interest in Bedeau. The centre half, who is still only 24 years old, joined the Shrimps on loan from Burnley in January 2022 and has since made 117 appearances for the team, including 49 appearances in all competitions in the last campaign.
Bedeau was signed by Steve Bruce when he was still at Aston Villa in the January window of 2017, for a reported fee of around £1 million. At the time, Bedeau was thought to be a genuine prospect for the future, but he was never able to make an appearance in the first team while wearing the claret and blue, and in January 2019 he was allowed to join Scunthorpe United.
Similar to Villa, Burnley recognised Bedeau’s potential and extended an offer of a contract to him in the summer of 2021. However, Bedeau was granted permission to go permanently to Morecambe, where he had previously played on loan during the second half of the 2021–2022 season.
Whatever the cause, Bedeau was not up to par at Villa. Under Kevin MacDonald and Mark Delaney, he was a mainstay in the under-23 team and frequently looked good playing with central defensive partner Easah Suliman. However, he was not promoted to the first team by Steve Bruce or Dean Smith, and Villa ended their losses in January 2019.
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