Barcelona has announced that midfielder Sergi Samper will be loaned out to fellow La Liga club Las Palmas for this season.
Last season, Sergi Samper was loaned to Granada for one season. It was good for him to get a lot of minutes as Barcelona didn’t have a place for him. However, Granada was relegated last season from La Liga. Despite that, Barca is sending their young midfielder on loan again. Barca has reported that Samper is headed to another La Liga club, Las Palmas, on a season-long loan.
Samper was given his chance to play when we went on the USA tour with the Blaugrana. Overall, his performance was pretty good over the summer. However, Ernesto Valverde has familiar faces in the midfield like Busquets and Iniesta. In addition to that, the team has just signed Paulinho from the Chinese Super League. For Samper, that was likely the biggest blow to his chances for playing with Barca this season.
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Samper will be playing in a holding midfield role with Las Palmas. As a number 4, Samper must be able to dictate the pace of the game from the midfield. The young Spaniard is certainly capable of doing so with a team like Las Palmas. Ernesto Valverde talked about why he should go on loan once again.
"“I spoke with him [Samper] about four days ago, the idea being that it would be good for him to go somewhere. He’s not going to get many minutes here and he needs to accumulate minutes. He could be a good player here.”Valverde on Sergi Samper"
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Las Palmas was promoted to La Liga in 2015 after winning a playoff with Real Zaragoza. They’ve managed to stay up for three straight seasons. However, they haven’t finished in the top of half since their return to the Spanish top flight. Before the 2015-16 season, Las Palmas hadn’t been in La Liga since the 2001-2002 season. They even went down to the third tier in the mid-2000’s. It was rock bottom then, but now they are back as one of the quality teams in Spain.
Overall, it’s tough for Sergi Samper to leave for another team this season. However, it’s good to see him get a chance to play a lot. Samper will get to showcase what he can do and it’s a big opportunity for him. Another year of development and he could be ready for the Blaugrana next season. Las Palmas is getting a very quality midfielder for this season and they have many midfielders that were loaned to them from the big clubs. Samper will surely be watched by the Barca staff.