‘Confirmed’: Manager insist ‘incredible’ 21-year-old ‘asked’ to join Sunderland in January.

According to a journalist, a “incredible” fan favorite requested to join Sunderland in January but was denied his demand.

Following a challenging first half of the season that saw Sunderland fall short of the playoffs by two points, the club was connected to several acquisitions as soon as the January transfer market opened.

In addition to a variety of left-backs and a midfielder to rival Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil, the Black Cats were rumored to be interested in a new first-choice striker throughout the previous year or so.

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.

By the time the next transfer window opens, the Black Cats will probably have three permanent managers in a year, so it may be quite risky to bring Amad back to Wearside, especially in light of our recent failure.

The Ivory Coast international’s contract is about to expire, so if he decides to leave, Manchester United may try to sell him permanently, which is something Sunderland cannot afford.

It would be good to move on from this and stop getting worked up over a prospect that is extremely unlikely to materialize, even though it is quite aggravating to know that we might have had him the entire season if he hadn’t sustained that injury in the preseason.

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