Ackermann, Harris and Clarke among Gloucester exits

Ruan Ackermann, Chris Harris and Freddie Clarke all have more than a century of Gloucester games each

The departure of 19 Gloucester players at the end of the season is "definitely not a clear out" said director of rugby George Skivington.

Ruan Ackermann, Freddie Clarke, Chris Harris, Zach Mercer, Albert Tuisue and Mayco Vivas are among those who will be leaving this summer.

Back row Ackermann and lock Clarke have both surpassed 150 appearances for the Cherry and Whites, with Scotland and British and Irish Lions centre Harris scoring 26 tries in 106 matches so far.

Fijian back row Tuisue has started six out of 17 matches this season and has been at Gloucester since 2022, along with Argentina loose-head prop Vivas.

"There's always people's journeys come to an end, opportunities open up for people, some people choose to move on," Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"It's always rough, it's one of the horrible parts of my role is talking with people - we've got some really good lads, you have great times with people, you have lows with people and you become close. It's professional sport and unfortunately that's part of the game we all sign up for."

Number eight Mercer, who signed in 2023 with the hope of returning to the England set-up, had his season ended by a knee injury in November and has been linked with a return to a French club.

Centre Louis Hillman-Cooper, prop Alfie Petch and hooker Morgan Nelson will also be leaving.

Versatile Argentina back Santiago Carreras had already confirmed his move to Bath for 2025-26, fly-half Gareth Anscombe has signed for French Top 14 side Bayonne, scrum-half Charlie Chapman will move to Premiership rivals Exeter and winger Christian Wade is switching codes to rugby league to join Wigan Warriors.

Academy players Morgan Adderly-Jones, Ioan Jones, Gareth Blackmore and Rory Taylor and dual-registered Matty Ward and Aristot Benz Salomon will also depart the club this summer.

Playing budget not getting smaller - Skivington

Clarke, Ackermann and Harris alone have 469 appearances for the club between them so far. Eight new signings have been confirmed for next season but aside from South African back row James Venter and fly-half Ross Byrne from Leinster, others such as centre Will Joseph and full-back Ben Redshaw are still developing.

Gloucester posted losses of £516,000 in their latest company accounts filed for the year ending 30 June 2024.

Skivington stressed the playing budget is not getting smaller next year and that they are making decisioning they think will make the club "stronger".

"We've got to balance that money right, our squad will be a little bit bigger next year, which I think is a real positive for us. It needed to be a few more bodies bigger," he said.

"We want to spend the money smart and our model isn't going to be go and buy loads of experienced players because we wouldn't have a particularly big squad if we did that.

"We have hedged our bets, there are some big calls within that, you hope you get them right - but you have to make calls. I think the time is right for some of the guys we're bringing in.

"Have we got lots of work to do to get it all aligned? We do but it's not absolutely perfect now but we've got to make it better and better all the time."