Sunderland chief Kristjaan Speakman admits they tried re-signing Amad Diallo last month.

The Manchester United midfielder spent last season on-loan with Sunderland.

Speakman told Sunderland Nation: “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. I think you've seen in terms of the market over the January window, 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."