Sunderland facing major contract decisions in the coming days

Sunderland will hold crunch contract talks with a number of key players in the coming days – as an EFL deadline approaches.

The vast majority of League One clubs have already had to submit their released and retained lists – with the EFL deadline on Saturday, May 15 – but the Black Cats were afforded extra time owing to their play-off campaign.

But having seen their promotion hopes ended on Saturday afternoon, Sunderland will now have to make some key contract decisions over a number of first-team players.

Clubs taking part in the play-offs have to submit their released and retained lists to the EFL four days following their final fixture. This means that the Wearsiders have until Wednesday, May 26 to let the league know who will be released and who the club plan to retain.

Discussions will be taking place this week between head coach Lee Johnson and the club’s backroom team before decisions are communicated to players.

It’s important to note a couple of things on this front, however.

Firstly, contracts do not have to be signed and sealed by this date. Sunderland simply need to indicate which players they will be offering new terms to, and then negotiations over the contract can continue for as long as is required.

And secondly, the club themselves can publicly release their retained and released lists whenever they choose. This deadline is simply for when the lists have to be submitted to the EFL.

Indeed, a number of others club who were subject to the May 15 deadline are yet to publicly announce their plans.

Johnson and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman are going to have some big decisions to make on the contractual front this summer, with a host of players contracts set to expire.

The following players all see their current deals expire in the summer, although a number of the individuals are reported to have options in their current deals which could see their terms extended: Lee Burge, Remi Matthews, Anthony Patterson, Luke O’Nien, Conor McLaughlin, Brandon Taylor, Denver Hume, Callum McFadzean, Max Power, Josh Scowen, Grant Leadbitter, Chris Maguire, Aiden McGeady, Charlie Wyke, Benji Kimpioka.