SUNDERLAND have opened contract talks with Denver Hume, Lynden Gooch and George Honeyman, with Jack Ross determined to keep the club’s current crop of youngsters together beyond the end of the season.

Josh Maja’s contract situation has been the subject of much attention in recent weeks, and Ross remains hopeful the striker will agree to a new long-term deal before the end of the year.

However, Maja is not the only Black Cats player due to become a free agent next summer, and talks have begun in an attempt to tie down a number of the youngsters who have established themselves in the first team this season.

Hume, Gooch and Honeyman are regarded as priorities, along with goalkeeper Max Stryjek, who is currently on loan at Eastleigh, and Ross is hoping to be able to report progress on all four fronts in the next few weeks.

“Denver, Josh, Lynden, George and Max are all out of contract in the summer,” said Ross, who will lead his side back into action at Bradford City tomorrow. “We’re keen to keep all of them at the club and the communication with their representatives has begun.

“How quickly that process will go, we’ll wait and see. It’s not just about Josh, we’re keen to keep all these younger players who have come through the club because they’re good enough to keep helping us progress. Hopefully, they’ll be part of that.”

Partly through choice, and partly through necessity, Ross has made a point of promoting Sunderland’s youngsters from the moment he arrived on Wearside to replace Chris Coleman.

Maja has been the biggest success story, closely followed by Hume, and while neither player had much senior experience prior to the start of the campaign, they are now regarded as integral members of the first-team squad, along with Honeyman and Gooch, who featured more prominently last season.

Beneath them, another generation of youngsters is already beginning to emerge, with 16-year-old Bali Mumba having started the campaign in the starting line-up and fellow teenager Benji Kimpioka having come off the bench in Tuesday’s 2-2 with Peterborough United to make his Football League debut.

Ross is delighted with the academy set-up he has at his disposal, and sees the award of a new contract as an important way of marking a young player’s progress.

“Sometimes it gets lost with all the other things that have gone on this season, but at times, we’ve had four young lads from the academy playing from the start,” he said. “With Benji coming on in the week, that’s probably the first time in a long time we’ve had so many involved in a first-team game.

“Bali’s progression often gets forgotten about in that regard too. It’s another step forward for the club, and it’s important for these young lads to get rewarded. It happens in other lines of work, where people get promoted, but in football, there’s not really that mechanism.

“It’s so much more complicated than it used to be in terms of how players reach decisions about where their future lies. As a manager, the most simplistic way to look at it is that I want them to be in my squad.

“I ask the club to reward them with a contract, that’s probably as much as I can do. If there’s any persuasion from me, it’s in terms of how I see them in the playing squad. Then it’s down to how much that matters to them.”

Honeyman has been handed the captain’s armband, and the midfielder is set to return in tomorrow’s game at Valley Parade after he was forced to sit out Tuesday’s draw.

He has been forced to follow a strict concussion protocol after suffering a head injury, but has completed his recovery in time to be available for selection this weekend.

Lee Cattermole should also return to the starting line-up against Bradford, and Ross is hoping Luke O’Nien will shake off the illness that prevented him from training yesterday within the next 24 hours. However, Sunderland will be without Bryan Oviedo, who is suspended following his dismissal against Peterborough.

“Lee’s suspension is over, and George should come back into contention too,” said Ross. “He will be fine in terms of the completion of his recovery from his concussion.

“Luke is still ill, but he’s probably the other one that will be closest (for Saturday’s game). He came in (yesterday) morning, but he wasn’t right so we had to send him home. But hopefully he’ll have recovered enough to take part in training (today). Apart from that, we’ll be as we were, obviously with the loss of Bryan.”

Oviedo’s dismissal soured Tuesday’s game at the Stadium of Light, but despite his side’s failure to pick up all three points, Ross left the ground feeling the game had marked another important step in the rebuilding of the relationship with Sunderland’s fans.

“I think we’ve done well at repairing that relationship,” he said. “We understand we have to continue to strengthen that by winning games on a regular basis, but I think we’ve made a good start in that regard.

“People can dismiss the reaction of the fans, particularly when you’re receiving criticism, and say it doesn’t bother them, but most of us have been there at some point. It’s human nature that of course it matters to you, so when it goes the other way and you have any adulation or encouragement, it’s a brilliant thing.”