What we know about Denver Hume's Sunderland future and the EFL compensation rules that could come into play

The academy graduate was one of our players offered fresh terms by the Black Cats following the end of the 2020/21 campaign and is the final member of the quartet to make a decision, with Aiden McGeady and Luke O’Nien having committed to Sunderland while Charlie Wyke has exited for Wigan.

Hume’s contract talks have taken on an extra degree of importance given the club’s current lack of options at full-back, but a positive resolution is yet to be reached.

As Kristjaan Speakman alluded to at the end of the season, the 22-year-old will no doubt have attracted interest from higher divisions given his exploits in recent years.

While injuries stunted his progress last season - and the extent of the hamstring injury he sustained at Lincoln City in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals is not fully known – his quality is known to the club’s footballing staff.

"I think what he hasn't got me and my staff can coach,” said head coach Johnson, speaking during a recent appearance on the #SAFCUnfiltered podcast.

“I think what he has got is difficult to coach. Denver Hume for me, is quite an exciting project as like - as long as his attitude is good, he stays fit and we work with him on the training ground.

“There's various parts to his game that when I was assessing the Sunderland squad and looking at areas, he's one that I thought 'okay, we can definitely raise the value of'.

“That doesn't necessarily mean in a monetary sense, that could mean raise the value of their actions and therefore they have more input into the game and therefore more output in terms of results.”

Sunderland remain hopeful that a deal can be agreed, but they will stand to benefit financially if Hume does move on this summer.

The rules around free transfers state that clubs will be due compensation for any player aged 24 or under who is offered equivalent or improved terms, but chooses to turn them down to move elsewhere.

That naturally means that were Hume to move on, then Sunderland would receive financial compensation.

How much the club would be due to receive is uncertain. The most straightforward way for compensation to be decided is for the two clubs to amicably agree upon a fee themselves, but this is quite uncommon.

More often than not, the level of compensation is decided by the Professional Football Compensation Committee (PFCC) – or as they are more commonly known, a tribunal.

When these matters go to a tribunal, a number of key criteria are assessed when deciding what level of compensation a club will receive. These include the following:

- The status of both clubs involved in the transaction

- The age of the player

- The length of time for which for the club held the player’s registration

- The length of contract offered – and turned down – by the player’s current club, and the contract they will be signing at their new club

- Costs caused by paying for the player’s accommodation, training and development, and running the academy (if they progressed through the club’s academy.

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