Fleetwood Town linked with loan move for Sunderland midfielder

The Northern Echo has claimed the Cod Army are in pole position to sign the 22-year-old on a season-long loan from the Black Cats.

Brown has had a busy summer since taking over as Highbury head coach, adding seven players to the senior squad.

When asked about the possibility of new arrivals after last weekend’s defeat of Plymouth Argyle, the head coach kept his cards close to his chest.

He said: “We’ll just wait and see what happens.

“You’re always looking to strengthen your squad and the chairman’s (Andy Pilley) been fantastic with us since coming in, so we’ll just wait and see how far I can push that as well.”

Diamond, who is under contract with Sunderland until 2024, came through their Academy and played three EFL Trophy games in the 2018/19 season.

The following year, he was loaned to Harrogate Town and made 32 league and cup appearances in helping them gain promotion to the EFL.

He then played 35 times for Sunderland across all competitions during the 2020/21 season, scoring twice.

Diamond also played five times for them last season, either side of two loan moves back to Harrogate.

Those resulted in 14 league and cup goals, which helped Town finish 19th in their second League Two season.

A move for Diamond would help the Cod Army to fill the gap created by Shayden Morris’ move to Aberdeen last week.