Albion are top of the clearout league.

It might not be enough to power them to the top of League One but Russell Slade’s deck-clearing exercise has shown he is not messing about.

The Great Escape was, well, great while it lasted but it only masked a season of under-achievement.

By releasing three players who actually started games in that end of season charge, Slade has well and truly drawn a line under that run-in.

The magnitude of his clearout underlines he felt all was far from well.

In fact, one wonders how many might have gone if all contracts were up for renewal.

There always seemed something a bit awkward about wildly celebrating the fact the Seagulls were not dropping into the fourth division.

Well the party is over now. And some members of that squad are coming down to earth with a bump.

Slade’s first retained list (actually more of a released list) as Albion boss sends out the message: “I’m in charge.”

If the side which battled to a 0-0 draw against Tranmere was, in his own words, “a Russell Slade team”, than here comes a summer of rebuilding, Slade style.

Even while those 16 points were being collected from the last seven games, plans were taking shape for what he would do just as soon as safety was secured and the squad was his to chop and change.

There was no room for sentiment.

Tommy Fraser played the last eight games of the season and scored the goal which set the revival rolling with his overhead kick at Hereford.

The name of the former youth team skipper was probably the most surprising on the list of 14 being released and he will take the decision as hard as anybody.

Some of his passing may have come in for criticism but Fraser’s passion for the club was never in question and he might have thought he was just starting to carve out a niche in the blue and white.

It had looked like he might earn a new contract, even if he was not out there at kick-off time in the first game of next season. Not so.

Slade admitted: “There have been some difficult decisions to make and telling players there is no new contract on offer is the most difficult part of the job, particularly for young players and those who played a part in our survival.”

Those words could have been designed for Fraser.

Or Doug Loft, come to that, who was recalled from a loan spell at Dagenham and Redbridge in Albion’s hour of need and went on to start those key final games of the season.

Coincidentally, Loft and Fraser also played a decent part in Albion’s other highlight of the season, the Carling Cup win over Manchester City.

But Slade is building what he intends to be a top-six squad and had to be cut-throat.

Adam Hinshelwood was hardly an integral part in the closing weeks but he did get one game in the run-in, as Andrew Whing’s stand-in at Bristol Rovers.

There will be regret that, due to injuries, Hinshelwood was never allowed to fully realise his potential at Albion.

If he is to do that now, it will be elsewhere. There were signs last term he can get back into the league, fitness permitting.

John Sullivan has his fans as a young keeper who waited patiently for his chance and, while taking several home hammerings, produced some mature displays away.

Still only 21, a DVD of his clean sheet, and wonder save, at Leicester might do his cause some good as he searches for new employers.

The release of the above mentioned players were the decisions that, while not creating shock waves, might just have raised a few eyebrows.

Chris Birchall, Jason Jarrett and Seb Carole were clearly on the way out. Birchall is already sorting himself out with LA Galaxy.

Kerry Mayo has hardly featured this season so his exit cannot be deemed a turn-up, though it has sentimental significance.

It is hard to judge the five youngsters let go – Sam Gargan, Kane Louis, Kane Wills, Dan Royce and Andy Pearson – without having seen them play too often, though Slade has been keen to study his junior players in reserve action.

So 14 are shown the door. That’s a fair old cull, even in these cost cutting times.

It just beats the 13 let go at Swindon, 12 at Leyton Orient and ten at relegated Crewe among last season’s League One clubs.

The squad is left well served for strikers and central defenders but in need of reinforcement in midfield and between the sticks.

Slade’s need for a left-back could also be urgent, depending on the progress being made by the unfortunate Jim McNulty.

Given the vast majority of those leaving Withdean are Sussex boys, there will be some sadness to see them go.

But it looks like an intriguing summer ahead as Albion build what might just be called “a Russell Slade squad”.

The Albion players already under contract for next season are: Dean Cox, Craig Davies, Jonny Dixon, Adam El-Abd, Tommy Elphick, Nicky Forster, Colin Hawkins, Michel Kuipers, David Livermore, Joel Lynch, Kevin McLeod, Jim McNulty, Glenn Murray and Adam Virgo.

In addition, Steve Cook, Steven Brinkhurst and Josh Pelling have been taken on as first-year professionals.