Liverpool midfielder Luis Alberto is set for another loan stint away from Merseyside in 2015-16 after completing a move to Deportivo La Coruna.
Deportivo confirmed via their official website on 6 July that the 22-year-old has successfully completed a medical and agreed to return to La Liga until 30 June 2016.
Benvido #ANosaPaixón @14_luisalberto! Xa formas parte da familia, d #OsNosos #DÉPOR1516 pic.twitter.com/LVclRamvJ6
— RC Deportivo (@RCDeportivo) July 6, 2015
Luis Alberto is set to leave on loan from Liverpool for the second consecutive season since arriving from Sevilla in a £6.8m two summers ago.
Last season, he was dispatched to Malaga on an initial two-year arrangement but returned to Anfield halfway through having evidently failed to impress during just 24 total appearances at Estadio La Rosaleda.
Luis Alberto did not feature at all after coming on as a second-half substitute during the 2-0 victory over Cordoba in March and his time at Malaga will have done preciously little to convince Rodgers of his long-term Premier League future.
The 22-year-old versatile midfielder who signed for the Anfield club in the summer of 2013 but has never started a Premier League game, scored twice in a loan spell at Malaga last season.
But the man who once cost Liverpool almost £7m has not been able to force his way back into Brendan Rodgers’ plans, and will spend another year in Spain.
Alberto has made only nine Premier League appearances for Liverpool, all of them as a substitute, with his only two starts coming in cup competitions.
But rather than move the player out on a permanent basis, manager Brendan Rodgers will sent him out on loan again in the hope that his development will be aided by regular first-team football in Spain.
Alberto is still relatively inexperienced at the highest level, having played most of his football for the B teams of Sevilla and Barcelona.
Alberto said he was looking forward to reaching the levels he was at before the move to Anfield in 2013.
‘I want to reconnect with the pitch, enjoy myself, give joy to the fans and return the faith of my Coach,’ Alberto told reporters.
‘I spoke with the coach [Victor Sanchez], who knew me from Sevilla. He told me to come here and that I’d be very happy and feel like player again at the level of two years ago.”
‘He knows me and where I have to improve, and now I’ll put myself at his disposal. I’m really looking forward [to playing under him].
‘[Depor’s objectives] are the same as they were at Malaga last season. We must think about survival and, once that’s achieved, something else.’