£250m of talent going FREE

CHELSEA REJECT ... Florent Malouda heads an impressive list of club-seeking stars this summer

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE winner Florent Malouda heads a £250million dole queue of top-flight talent.

Premier League clubs yesterday published the list of players being dumped when their contracts run out.

In transfer fees alone the pile of unwanted stars costs a whopping £147.9m.

But when you count wages and the money invested into trainees in each club’s youth system, you can add another £100m on top of that.

Malouda, 32, is set to return to French side Lyon — the club that sold him to Chelsea for £13m in 2007.

Out-of-contract players can either be left on the scrapheap or viewed as a bargain buy for any hungry clubs who cannot afford to splash out on big transfer fees.

In addition to rebel Malouda — who sat out the final year of his £80,000-a-week deal after winning the Champions League in 2012 and ended up training with the kids — there are other big names facing an uncertain future.

Winger David Bentley cost Tottenham a whopping £17m in 2008 but is a free agent after repeatedly being farmed out on loan.

John Bostock was a highly rated 16-year-old midfielder when he left Crystal Palace for Spurs the same summer as Bentley, only to now follow his team-mate through the exit door.

Arsenal’s Russian flop Andrey Arshavin is also out of work, along with Denilson and Sebastien Squillaci.

William Gallas, former England defender Matthew Upson, ex-Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant and Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz are all on the unwanted list.

City’s one-time left-back Wayne Bridge has been cut adrift at the end of his £90,000-a-week contract but has already landed a one-year deal at relegated Reading.

Bosses like QPR’s Harry Redknapp, who missed out on Bridge, will be studying the released list over the next few days.

Not all the players handed their P45s are multi-millionaires with glittering reputations.

Lots of young emerging players just fail to make the grade and now face a mad summer scramble to get a job in time for the new Premier League season, which starts in just 70 days’ time on August 17.