Reports claim Everton want to bring former Liverpool youngster Luis Alberto back to the Premier League after his stunning Serie A season with Lazio.
If there was one man on Merseyside disappointed to see Brendan Rodgers pack up his bags and stride off into the sunset five years ago, it was Luis Alberto.
A little-known youngster who moved to Anfield from Sevilla in 2013, Alberto certainly wasn’t one of the first names on Rodgers’ Liverpool team-sheet, but that does not mean a coach famed for his ability to help youngsters fulfil their potential hadn’t spotted something special in this languid play-maker.
“He’s another Coutinho-type,” Rodgers told the Mirror, comparing the Spaniard to a man who would eventually leave Liverpool for Barcelona in a £120 million deal.
“We brought in young Philippe Coutinho in January when he was 20 years of age, but he had good experience and, more importantly, fitted the profile of what we’re trying to do here and what we’re trying to build. Young Luis is exactly the same – a talented, very highly-rated young player.”
Unlike Coutinho, however, Alberto was never given the chance to live up to such lofty expectations in the North West.
Just months after the feted arrival of one Jurgen Klopp, the Cadiz-born attacker was gone, flogged to Lazio in a £4.3 million deal after just nine Premier League appearances.
But with none other than bitter Merseyside rivals Everton linked with a move to bring Alberto back to Britain, according to Corriere dello Sera, Liverpool’s decision to sell the now-27-year-old at a £2 million loss will come under the microscope.
These days, Alberto is actually outshining Coutinho, rather than just playing like him. With 14 assists the Spain international has fired Lazio into the driving seat for the Scudetto, with the Rome-based giants sitting top of the Serie A table for the first time in a decade.
Corriere dello Sport claims that Lazio are desperate to tie one of the world’s most underrated attackers down to a new, £60k-a-week deal with Everton sniffing around.
And no wonder. Players like him, or Coutinho for that matter, don’t come around too often.
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