A journalist asserted that a beloved player, highly favored by fans, expressed a desire to join Sunderland in January but didn’t see it come to fruition.
After a challenging first half of the season that left Sunderland narrowly missing the playoffs by two points, the club was rumored to be eyeing several additions as the January transfer window opened.
While their focus primarily lay on securing a new primary striker, similar to their pursuits over the past year, they also displayed interest in acquiring left-backs and a midfielder to challenge Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil.
However, among the players Sunderland supporters were eager to see join was Amad Diallo.
The exceptional Ivorian scored 14 goals while on loan at Sunderland last season and continued to be linked with a return last summer until an injury sidelined him for the remainder of the year.
Once again, Amad was linked with Sunderland in January, and hopes soared when journalist Michael Graham reported that the 21-year-old had requested Manchester United for a loan return to Sunderland.
Nevertheless, Fabrizio Romano promptly refuted the claim, asserting that Amad hadn’t expressed a desire to depart and was content to remain at Old Trafford for the season.
Despite the speculation, the midfielder stayed with the Red Devils but has seen minimal action, totaling only 27 minutes of playtime since the close of the transfer window.
Amad has recently gained the attention of Sunderland fans after deleting all of his Manchester United-related Instagram photographs and adding ‘this well end’ to his bio.
Graham responded to the youngster’s latest social media activities, telling X that he will still’stand by’ his statements from the January window.
He wrote, “Amad has asked to join to #SAFC in late January. I reported it at the time, stood by it when Romano disputed it (and accused me of making it up), and I still stand by it today.”
He then added: “I don’t mind Romano doing what he does. He gains valuable knowledge from it.
Could have simply done what he needed to without sending me a slew of hate and threats by claiming I ‘created’ it, though.”
Will Amad ever return to Sunderland?
Amad Diallo had always made it apparent that he adores Sunderland, so it was difficult to imagine that he didn’t want to return when he liked a fan’s X post about ‘coming home’.
However, that never happened, and it may be too much to expect him to return on loan this summer.
Photo by Alex Dodd, CameraSport via Getty Images.
By the time the next transfer window arrives, the Black Cats will most certainly have their third permanent manager in a year, and bringing Amad back to Wearside could be a massive gamble, especially given our recent failure.
The Ivory Coast international will also be entering the final year of his contract, so if he does depart, Manchester United may opt to offload him permanently, which Sunderland cannot afford.
It’s extremely irritating to know that we could have had him whole season if he hadn’t suffered that injury in pre-season, but it would be wonderful to put it all behind us and stop getting excited about something that is quite unlikely to happen.
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