Amad Diallo must be dreaming of Sunderland amid Man United stint: View | OneFootball

Highlights

Amad Diallo was one of the standout players in the entire Championship last year.

The Ivorian had a slow start to life at Sunderland but eventually asserted himself as a key part of Tony Mowbray’s first team squad.

The youngster was on loan from Manchester United and played a huge role in the team’s rise to a sixth-place finish.

He contributed an impressive 13 goals and three assists from 37 appearances in the second division (all stats from Fbref).

This was a hugely successful loan move that helped the Black Cats secure a play-off place.

Sunderland re-signing the 21-year-old.

Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman opened up on the club’s efforts to sign Amad during the winter market.

However, Man United held firm in their stance that they were not willing to loan out the forward.

“Amad would have been one of those three or four targets [that we were working on] but there are factors we have no control over,” said Speakman, via Sports Illustrated.

“I think you've seen, first of all, in terms of the market over the January window, it's been, I think the phrase that's been commonly used, is it’s been a fairly dormant market.

“There's not been as many transactions.

“And ultimately then you're waiting on player availability most of the time, whether that's on a permanent basis or a loan basis.

“It ran its course that he wasn't available.

“We stayed in that for as long as we possibly could.”

This came as a real blow to Sunderland’s promotion hopes as they missed out on the chance to add a very strong option to his attack.

Amad was the team’s top scorer last year, and it is his goals that they are now missing, as they've struggled to score the goals and consistently pick up the results needed to maintain top six form.

If they had been able to sign someone of Amad’s obvious talent then perhaps they would be sitting higher than 10th in the table.

Amad made his return to fitness in late 2023, leading to his first Man United league appearance of the season on 30 December against Nottingham Forest.

The winger came off the bench early in the second half but struggled to make any kind of impact.

He has yet to play since, sitting on the bench in the last four Premier League games.

The Ivory Coast international was an unused sub as Erik ten Hag’s side won 2-1 at Luton Town on Sunday, with Alejandro Garnacho cementing himself as the team’s starting right-winger instead.

This will be extremely disappointing for the former Atalanta academy player, who will surely be wishing he was back at the Stadium of Light playing regular football.

This lack of a deal has worked out for nobody so far, with Sunderland unable to find someone of his quality instead during the January window.