Sheffield United and Beerschot join Hull City in pursuit of Hamilton Accies midfielder

In-demand Hamilton Accies youngster Lewis Latona is at the center of a three-way battle for his signature next season, with Sheffield United and Belgian top-flight side Beerschot joining Hull City in their pursuit of the midfielder.

The 17-year-old spent 10 days down south last week on trial, and while part of that was spent at English Championship side Hull City, the talented teenager also trained with the Blades in midfield Beerschot, also making his interest known .

Sheffield United have already raided Accies this season, signing Coatbridge youngster Ryan One, who has enjoyed an excellent start with their development side scoring 13 goals in all competitions since joining last September.

In any case, Lanarkshire Live Sport understands a relationship has recently formed between Beershot and which could prove a more lucrative proposition for the League One outfit in the long term. Latona could thus follow a similar path to Scotland international Jack Hendry, who proved a hit in Belgium with KV Oostende after a loan spell from Celtic in 2020 and went on to play for Club Brugge in the country the following season.

Latona made his league debut for the club in a 3-1 win at Annan last month, having featured twice for Accies on their way to lifting the SPFL Trust Trophy last season and attracting the attention of a number of clubs . Yesterday, Accies boss John Rankin confirmed that Latona was out of the squad last week due to a trial in England.

Rankin, whose side are in Championship play-off action tonight when they face Alloa in the first leg of their semi-final, said: “Lewis has attracted interest and we have had a note of interest from a club from the south. went down last week to have a look at it and now to drop it on the road. Lewis would have been involved on Saturday and played against Kelty but was missing from the squad for the trip.

“He played against Annan for us last month and he came on and had an impact in that game but due to the circumstances of being out for a period of time he couldn’t play for us. He didn’t train . with us since he was there, so he won’t be involved in any of these play-off games because he spent the last 10 days down south and not with the group.

“It would be a big transition for him, being a young Scot 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 could do to this obvious change. in his life.”

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