Burnley and Sheffield United set to miss out on Nottingham Forest player | OneFootball

Lewis O'Brien was a wanted man this summer, but has opted for a move to the United States

Sheffield United and Burnley have lost out in their pursuit of Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O’Brien, as the 25-year-old looks set to join MLS side Los Angeles FC.

That’s according to journalist Alan Nixon, who has given the update on the Championship pair’s target on his Patreon page, as the former Huddersfield Town man looks set to move back to the United States.

The midfielder had a previous spell in Major League Soccer with DC United last year, where he played 17 times and scored a single goal while under the management of current Plymouth Argyle boss Wayne Rooney.

The offer of going back across the Atlantic was said to have won O’Brien over, having played only 13 league games for Forest since moving to the City Ground in July 2022.

Sheffield United, Burnley miss out in Lewis O’Brien race

After being deemed surplus to requirements with the Premier League outfit, O’Brien was subject to loan offers from both Burnley and Sheffield United this summer, according to Pete O’Rourke of Football Insider.

The recently relegated pair were both said to have been eying up the midfielder to add energy into the middle of the park ahead of their respective returns to the Football League, but those plans have now been scuppered.

That's because he has now opted against another return to the EFL, with the offer of a move to Los Angeles too hard to turn down, with the American side currently in the middle of their MLS season.

The California-based side are currently second in the Western Conference as it stands, and sit two points below city rivals LA Galaxy, although O’Brien’s new employers do have two games in hand.

The 25-year-old has starred in the second tier previously in his career, with his all-action displays initially catching the eye while he was at Huddersfield Town, where he racked up over 100 appearances for the Terriers.

After falling out of favour with the Tricky Trees, he was back in the Football League for the previous campaign, as he spent the season on loan with Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough side, where he featured 23 times during his time at The Riverside.

Lewis O’Brien set to join Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud at LAFC after Nottingham Forest departure

While the lure of returning to the United States will have been a major deciding factor for O’Brien, the fact that he will be playing with some top quality players will also have helped him make his mind up.

LAFC currently have some eye-catching names within their squad as it stands, with manager Steve Cherundolo having former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris [pictured] as one of his choices between the sticks.

Lloris is also joined by compatriot Olivier Giroud in the States, with the former Arsenal man leading the line, having joined the club at the end of the Serie A season when his time with AC Milan came to an end.

O’Brien won’t be the only former Middlesbrough man in the squad either, with one-season wonder Kei Kamara also plying his trade in the States, after his playing at the Riverside in the 2013/14 campaign, in which he scored four times in 25 appearances.