SUNDERLAND manager Lee Johnson admits he has regrets over the way that the saga surrounding Denver Hume's contract negotiation has played out publicly. 

The full-back, whose original Black Cats deal expired at the end of last season, has signed a new two-year deal at the Stadium of Light, with the club having the option of extending the contract by a further 12 months.

Hume, who has made 63 senior Sunderland appearances, has had an offer on the table from the club for a number of months.

Both the players representatives and club have been locked in negotiations whilst the player has been recovering from long-term injury at the club's training ground. The Black Cats boss told the media that Hume had rejected their best offer only a few weeks ago. It's now understood that same offer that was on the table has now been signed by the full-back. 

Johnson told the Northern Echo: “It’s almost like buying a house isn’t it. Someone is willing to pay what they can pay. Simple as that.

“Everyone has got a different sort of agenda in a negotiation. Players want to play as high as they can and as long as they can, agents need to feed their kids, clubs need to keep their budgets as low as possible but then eventually, you find that middle ground.

“There’s obviously the added caveat of the injury and the compensation for any young player that’s looking to stay or go, depending on the work that the agents done and the interest out and about and available.

“All of that, the eclectic mix of various challenges got in the way. We would have liked to have done it a lot earlier, we couldn’t but he wasn’t available to play anyway so it was only really the drama and the saga that’s played out in the public domain that’s really regrettable. Because in the end, we’ve got the end result and the player has just come in to being available to play anyway.

“If this had all be done behind the scenes and not played out then no one would have known none the wiser, we’d have just carried on and been delighted that we’ve managed to get it done.

“Denver is a really valued member of the squad. We offered him a contract because we wanted him to sign it. We just didn’t have much room to budge on the initial offer because obviously we wanted to maximise the squad and the quality of the squad in difficult times and I think sometimes I think that is difficult for people to see and hear."

Hume will now have to compete with fellow full-backs Dennis Cirkin and Niall Huggins for a place in the starting eleven while Dan Neil can also be used there.