A journalist has insisted that one ‘incredible’ fan favourite asked to join Sunderland in January – but didn’t get his wish.
After a difficult first half of the campaign that left Sunderland two points off the playoffs, the club were linked with a number of additions as the January transfer window opened.
While, like the past year or so, the Black Cats were said to be interested in a new first-choice striker, they also showed interest in a number of left-backs, as well as a midfielder to compete with Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil.
However, one player that Sunderland fans were desperate to bring in was Amad Diallo.
The ‘incredible‘ Ivorian netted 14 goals whilst on loan at Wearside last season and had continued to be linked with a return last summer, before suffering an injury that kept him out for the rest of the year.
The Black Cats were once again linked with Amad in January and the club were given a huge boost when journalist Michael Graham claimed that the 21-year-old had asked Manchester United if he could return to Sunderland on loan.
However, Fabrizio Romano immediately hit back and insisted that Amad had not asked to leave and was ‘happy’ to remain at Old Trafford this season.
The midfielder ended up staying with the Red Devils but has now managed only 27 minutes of action since the transfer window closed.
Amad has this week caught Sunderland fans’ attention after deleting all his Manchester United-related photos on his Instagram and added ‘this well end’ to his bio.
The youngster’s recent social media activity has sparked a response from Graham, who took to X to insist he will still ‘stand by’ his claims from the January window.
He wrote: “Amad 100% asked to come to #SAFC in late January. Reported it at the time, stood by it when Romano denied it (and directly accused me of making it up), stand by it now.”
He then followed up with: “I don’t even mind Romano doing what he does. He gets great info out of it. Could have very easily done what he needed to without sending a whole load of abuse and threats my way by saying I ‘invented’ it, though.”
Will Amad ever return to Sunderland?
Amad Diallo had always made it very clear that he loves Sunderland, and it was hard to believe that he didn’t want to return when he liked a fans’ X post about him ‘coming home’.
It never materialised though, and it could well be too much to ask for him to finally return on loan this summer.
The Black Cats will likely be on their third permanent manager in a year by the time the next transfer window rolls around, and it could be a huge risk to come back to Wearside for Amad, especially given our recent collapse.
The Ivory Coast international will also be entering the final 12 months of his contract, so if he is going to leave, Manchester United could instead look to offload him permanently – something Sunderland definitely can’t afford.
It is incredibly frustrating knowing we could well have had him all season if he hadn’t picked up that injury in pre-season, but it would be nice to put it all behind us now and stop getting excited about a prospect that is very unlikely to happen.