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Over the weekend, reports emerged that Luis Alberto was heading to Spain ahead of a Monday medical with Deportivo de La Coruna. Having successfully passed it, the midfielder has now been officially confirmed as the La Liga side’s fifth signing of the summer.
He is heading there on a season-long loan after spending last year with Malaga, where he made 20 appearances across all competitions, scoring two goals and adding a pair of assists. It wasn’t the kind of loan performance that seemed likely to push the 22-year-old into contention at Liverpool.
"I want to reconnect with the pitch, enjoy myself, give joy to the fans, and return the faith of my coach," said the player of his second return to Spain. "I spoke with the coach, who knew me from Sevilla. He told me to come here and that I’d be very happy and feel like a player again at the level of two years ago."
Hopefully, for Alberto’s sake if not the £7M Liverpool invested in bringing him to England from Sevilla in 2013, Deportivo is where he does make the breakthrough and goes from promising prospect to confirmed talent. If he does, there’s even an outside chance he ends up back in Liverpool’s plans.
Given how little the player has done to impress Liverpool’s coaches in the two years since joining up at the club, though, and how poor a fit his languid style seems, it’s far easier to imagine him heading to some mid-table side in Spain permanently for a nominal fee this time next summer.
