New Sheffield United boss Ruben Selles has expressed his desire to keep Gustavo Hamer at Bramall Lane. The Brazilian-born Dutchman, named the Championship's player of the season in the 2024/25 season, was the subject of transfer interest from Leeds United last summer.
The Whites saw a £13m offer knocked back for Hamer as they failed to bring in a new No 10. Leeds Live understands Leeds retain an interest in the player, who still has two years left to run on his Blades deal, and are known to be in the market for a new attacking midfielder.
Hamer, who turned 29 yesterday, weighed in with eight assists and 10 goals in the regular season as the Blades finished third in the table. The South Yorkshire club missed out on an immediate Premier League return after losing to Sunderland in the play-off final at Wembley last month.
There has been speculation regarding the futures of Hamer, Michael Cooper, Anel Ahmedhodzic, Vinicius Souza and Sydie Peck since the Blades' heartbreaking defeat to Sunderland. But Selles, who replaced Chris Wilder at the helm last week, is keen to keep his best players heading into next season.
“I think it's a really good sign that you have players with already some interest, because that means you have really good players for the level and that's what we want," said the Spaniard. "We want to have really good players and to achieve the very best in the season.
“And for that, you need to fight sometimes, and that's what we're going to do. For me, all the names you said are players we want to come with and obviously if something happened there, we will try and find the proper replacement for them. But right now, the ideal outcome is to keep them all together.”
When quizzed specifically on Hamer's future, Selles said: “He’s a Sheffield United player and I want him to be a Sheffield United player when the market closes. Obviously I cannot control what happens in the future because the market is so fluid and dynamic.
“But my intention is to keep him as one of our key players. He has been key for us and for the team and if we can keep him that will mean we are in a really powerful place to achieve our target.
“We are in a good place, we have a really good squad. We have assessed the squad, we have a really good youth system with some good players and we have room to get a couple of players that can improve our levels as well.”
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