Newcastle begin at home to Saracens on Friday night (20:00 BST) with a team that includes four summer additions in returning captain George McGuigan, lock Jamie Hodgson, back-rower Amanaki Mafi and full-back Boeta Chamberlain with two more on the bench.
But there will be a drip-feed of new signings as the season goes on, meaning the Red Bulls will be a very much a work in progress and because of that, Diamond is reluctant to set a target about what he wants from this campaign.
“There’s going to be a period over the next five weeks of the team getting to know each other under pressure,” added Diamond.
“We then get a few more resources coming in – Tom Christie, Christian Wade, Simon Benitez Cruz.
“Newcastle Red Bulls will be a different team in 18 months time to what it is now. In two years time, I think that is when expectation can be put on the team.”
