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Tony Mowbray reveals whether or not Sunderland can hope to re-sign Amad Diallo

Does Amad Diallo's future include a return to Sunderland? Tony Mowbray has had his say.

Author:
Michael Graham
Publish date:
Apr 13, 2023 8:24 PM EDT

Tony Mowbray has admitted that Amad Diallo will almost certainly be out of the reach of Sunderland next season and advised fans to enjoy watching him while they still can.

Amad has had a sensational season on-loan from Manchester United and fully showcased his talents with consistently outstanding performances and a number of stunning goals.

He will return to Man Utd in the summer and reports have suggested the Red Devils will look to loan him out again next season to continue his development.

That raised hopes that a second season at Sunderland may not be out of the question after all. However, Mowbray believes the Ivorian will be attracting interest from above the Wearsiders’ level.

“Amad is a wonderful footballer,” said the Black Cats boss. “I know how much he enjoys his football and enjoys the environment, being around his team-mates. But you have to put it into context – he’s a Manchester United player and he cost them a lot of money.

“Whatever their plans are for him, we’ll have to see. They will have him back at the end of this season, and he’ll probably go on their pre-season tour and they’ll see where they think he is.

“It’s their decision. Unless he’s told that he’s going out on loan again, then we just have to abide by that really. And even if he did go out on loan again, I would suggest there might be some Premier League sides that would have seen the talent and recognised that he could play for them.”

Amad had a slow start at Sunderland. He arrived low on confidence and appeared shy on the pitch. As the season has progressed, though, he has come to relish the responsibility that his talent affords him as a matchwinner, and he will leave a very different footballer.

“First and foremost, his natural talent is there for everybody to see,” Mowbray said. “I shouldn’t need to eulogise about what he can do with the ball at his feet. It’s almost stuck to his left foot.

“He’s built up a wonderful relationship with Patrick Roberts, with their clever interaction and one-twos. Their interlinking with each other has been really good.

“It’s great that he’s been able to score some goals because, early on, he wouldn’t shoot. Early on, you could see how talented he was, but he’d get in the box and he was always looking to pass. He needed to break out of that and I think now he’s in a frame of mind where he’s enjoying scoring goals and celebrating helping the team win.

“He’s a nice kid and he’s very talented. Sometimes, you have to give him a bit of a gee up to make sure he knows how important the next game is because you have to put into context that he’s not our player, he’s got a home at Manchester United.

“Sometimes, when you’re as talented as he is, I’ve got to make sure that he doesn’t just turn up and go through the motions and think it’s quite comfortable and he can do what he wants. We’ve all enjoyed working with Amad. I’ll be really interested to see the direction that his career takes.”

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