Sheffield United and Hull City locked in transfer ‘battle’ for talented midfielder

By Infograbarena

Sheffield United and Hull City are reportedly locked in a battle to secure the signature of Hamilton Academical prodigy Lewis Latona.

The seventeen-year-old, a midfielder by profession, is well-regarded in Scotland and has already made senior appearances for Hamilton. John Rankin, the manager of Hamilton, recently revealed that Latona had trained with a different team that was interested in him.

Rankin stated, “Lewis has been drawing interest and we’ve had a note of interest from a club down south,” as quoted by the Daily Record. Last week, he walked down to look at them and for them to gaze at him.

Now he’s back on the road. Lewis was not included in the squad due to this travel, but he would have participated and played against Kelty on Saturday.

HAMILTON, SCOTLAND – DECEMBER 10: Lewis Latona in action for Hamilton during a SPFL Trust Trophy match between Hamilton Academical and Inverness Caledonian Thistle at the ZLX Stadium, on December 10, 2022, in Hamilton, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)

“He represented us against Annan last month and had a great impact on the game when he came on, but he was unable to play for us because of circumstances that required him to be away for a while. He won’t play in either of these play-off games since he hasn’t trained with us since he was down south. He has been away from the group for the last ten days.”

The article purports that Latona has trained for both Hull and Sheffield United, with both teams showing interest in him. But a connection is rumored to have been established with Beerschot, the Belgian team that is Sheffield United’s sister club. In the long run, Hamilton might possibly make more money from a sale to Beerschot.

Rankin continued: “It would be a big transition for him, being a young Scottish lad who has never been away from home before, so I think that was part of the reason why he was away for a while, to see how he might handle that obvious change in his life.”

In the past, Sheffield United raided Hamilton in an attempt to sign Ryan One, a forward. The gifted young player had his senior debut in October during a 5-0 loss to Arsenal.