‘Coming here is a big change for me – I am looking forward to it’
Denver Hume has opened up about his move from Sunderland to Portsmouth – and revealed the team he supported as a child.
Hume extended his stay on Wearside last summer following a long contract stand-off.
But the left-back signed a two-and-a-half-year deal at Portsmouth last week to end his Sunderland stint.
The 23-year-old brought a 13-year long association with the Black Cats to an end, having struggled to secure regular football over the last 12 months due to injury and then the form of Dennis Cirkin.
Talking about last summer, he told The Portsmouth News: “I was out of contract and didn’t know how things were going to pan out.
"A hamstring injury from the play-offs made it a little difficult to kind of judge what I was going to do and where I was going to be.
“Sunderland also may have expected to go up and then didn’t, there were a lot of factors in it.
"But, ultimately, I just wanted to get that out of the way, get my head down and get back fit, which I did.
“I don’t really listen to any outside noise, I just try to concentrate on what I’m doing on the pitch.
"Having the injury at the time, I wasn’t really too bothered by what other people were saying from the outside.
“For myself, I just want to concentrate on getting back fit and getting back out there.
"If you start listening to the outside noise and what other people think then you’re going to get distracted from the main thing, which, at the end of the day, was playing football.
"I wanted to get fit first. "At the time, the injury was my main priority.
"There were a lot of things going on, like the club not going up and stuff, so I was more concentrating on that.
"Ultimately, I ended up signing a contract which kept me at the club.
“From there, I didn’t complain, I kept my head down, waiting to get back fit and I was involved in the last two or three months.
“There was no rush to sign my contract and I don’t really like to listen to any of the outside noise.
“I prefer to just do my thing and concentrate on what the people around me actually think rather than all the outside noise."
Hume also spoke candidly about his football allegiances as a child growing up in the North East, revealing that he is a long-standing supporter of a Premier League titan.
He added: ‘I’m a Manchester United fan just because, when I was really young, my older brother supported them and they were probably the best team at the time.
“Other parts of my family support Sunderland and other parts support Newcastle
(United), just because of where I’m from.
“But obviously when you’ve been at a club for 15 years (Sunderland), then you end up following the firstteam, which is natural.
“I joined Sunderland at under-nines, that’s all I have known, so coming down here is a big change for me – and I’m looking forward to that challenge.”