https://www.a-love-supreme.com/single-post/born-on-this-day-amad-diallo Happy birthday to Sunderland fan favourite and former loanee, Amad Diallo! After impressing in Italy with Atalanta for a few years, Manchester United paid a reported fee of €25m, rising to 40 million. Regardless of talent, that is an unbelievable price tag for a teenager which adds so much unnecessary pressure. After a small handful of appearances for Man United, Amad was loaned to Rangers. In theory, it was a move which would allow him to develop physically in a rough-and-tumble league, but would be playing in a dominant side that would see plenty of the ball and allow him the breathing room to make mistakes and learn. However, after scoring on his debut against Ross County it all went downhill for Amad. Injuries, combined with a lack of willingness to get stuck in, meant he fell out of favour at Ibrox. It led to a disappointing 13 appearances and three goals. When he arrived at Sunderland, he actually didn’t hit the ground running. A couple of factors (including building up his fitness and the fact his English wasn’t great) meant it took a while for the Ivorian to get up to speed with the pace of the Championship. At times we played him as a ‘striker’ because of injuries to Stewart and Simms. Tony Mowbray spoke several times of Amad being unwilling to shoot. In training, he would beat his man comfortably but then try and beat him again and again rather than just hitting the shot. However, it was only a matter of time before he found the back of the net. In our 4-2 loss at home to Burnley, he showed good composure to wrongfoot their keeper and find the bottom corner - leading to the first time we saw his signature celebration. The talented winger never really looked back from that point. The goal filled him with confidence and we soon began to see the reason United spent so much money on him in the first place. Amad soon scored three consecutive goals against Birmingham (a beautiful curled effort), Millwall and West Brom. They were enough to earn him EFL Young Play of the Month. Countless screamers followed, as Amad Diallo spearheaded our attack. Amazing link-up play with Patrick Roberts earned praise from pundits claiming the pair wouldn’t look out of place in Barcelona shirts. It was his goal against Preston which kickstarted the 3-0 demolition, and secured a last-day place in the play-offs. Then, another left-footed curler against Luton gave us hope that we might make it back-to-back Wembley trips. The reality is, Amad Diallo was simply a Premier League player who found a home in a Championship team. We all loved him but as the days go by this summer, it looks less and less likely that he will return to Wearside. Maybe one day though. Happy birthday Amad…
