Sunderland chased Amad Diallo deal 'as long as they possibly could', says Kristjaan Speakman

Sunderland tried to re-sign Amad Diallo on loan ‘for as long as they possibly could’ but Manchester United made a decision to keep him, Kristjaan Speakman has confirmed.

Amad was brilliant at Sunderland last season but he has barely featured for Man Utd since returning in the summer, largely due to an injury he picked up in preseason.

Since returning he has not featured much either, though, meaning both Sunderland and Amad explored the possibility of a return to Wearside for a second loan spell.

However, despite trying all month, Sunderland were unable to persuade Man Utd to allow the deal and they were forced to accept defeat – possibly to the detriment of signing other targets.

“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,” Speakman said of the reasons why the pursuit ultimately failed.

“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. He's not turned up anywhere else. We stayed in that for as long as we possibly could.

“In hindsight you could say that was to the detriment of maybe signing another player earlier on, but we felt that was a choice we had to make and we were comfortable with that choice.”

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