Toffees misfit heads back to La Liga on loan for 2018/19 campaign
Everton have sanctioned a season-long loan deal for Sandro Ramirez to join La Liga club Real Sociedad.
There were rumours in the press about the striker heading back to his Spanish homeland, and the Blues’ official website confirmed his Goodison Park departure on Thursday.
Sandro had fallen down the pecking order again under Marco Silva and, despite his manager’s wish to retain his services, wanted to leave to earn regular starts and minutes elsewhere.
A number of European teams were believed to be chasing the 23-year-old’s signature ahead of the 11pm cut off point for the European summer transfer window.
It is Sociedad who have won that race for Sandro’s services though, and he will remain with his temporary employers until the end of the 2018/19 campaign.
Sociedad are the fourth club that Sandro will have played for in Spain’s top flight, with Barcelona, Malaga and Sevilla all taking him on for various periods of time.
It was with Malaga that Sandro caught the attention of Everton last summer – slamming home 16 goals in just 31 matches to secure a £5.2m switch to the Toffees.
However, his lack of confidence and the overall poor season that Everton suffered last term meant that Sandro only bagged one goal in 16 matches for the Merseysiders.
He was shipped off to Sevilla on a six-month loan from January, but failed to find the back of the net in 15 games for Los Rojiblancos.
Sandro started six of Everton’s seven pre-season clashes under Silva this summer, but didn’t do enough to warrant a place in the 41-year-old’s team for the first three Premier League games this season.
He started Wednesday’s Carabao Cup victory over Rotherham United and laid on the opening goal for Gylfi Sigurdsson, but still wanted to depart L4 to gain regular football elsewhere.
It just hasn’t worked out for the Spain Under-21 international at Goodison Park. He came with a glowing record from Malaga but just hasn’t adapted to the rigours of English football.
If he plays well for Sociedad, Everton could elect to cash in on him in January or next summer, and bring an end to his turgid time with the Blues.