• Serbia winger will join Turkish club on a season’s loan • Liverpool still believe he has the talent to succeed at Anfield

Lazar Markovic is to join Fenerbahce on a season-long loan from Liverpool in search of the regular first-team football that has eluded him at Anfield.

Liverpool have agreed terms with the Turkish club over the Serbia international’s move and the 21-year-old is close to finalising the move to Istanbul. He will become the fourth of the nine players who joined Liverpool last summer to make a move in this transfer window, after Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Javier Manquillo, who had his two-year loan from Atlético Madrid cancelled after 12 months.

Mario Balotelli blames Brendan Rodgers’ tactics for poor Liverpool spell Read more

Markovic cost the Anfield club £20m from Benfica last July but rarely recaptured the form he displayed in Portugal and made only 11 Premier League starts for Brendan Rodgers’ side last season. He made 34 appearances in total, including 11 as a substitute, and has not featured in any of the Liverpool manager’s three match-day squads this term.

Despite the player’s struggles to impose himself in English football, however, Liverpool believe the former Partizan Belgrade man does have the talent to succeed at Anfield and the loan deal does not contain an option for Fenerbahce to sign the winger on a permanent basis. The club hope a competitive season and the prospect of more starts in Turkey will prove more beneficial to Markovic’s development than another season on the margins of Rodgers’ team.

Balotelli joined Milan this week on a season-long loan without the option of a permanent deal but, in contrast to the situation with Markovic, that was at the Italian club’s insistence and the best offer available to Liverpool. With Markovic, Liverpool have informed Fenerbahce they are not considering a sale and want him back in Rodgers’ squad next summer.

The Anfield club are also believed to be paying 20% of Balotelli’s wages in Milan, approximately £20,000 a week when the various clauses in his contract are factored in.

Didier Deschamps, meanwhile, has admitted he omitted Mamadou Sakho from the France squad for next month’s friendlies against Portugal and Serbia because of his absence from Liverpool games this season. Sakho has been offered a new contract at Liverpool despite not featuring in the manager’s plans at present and the club has also rejected loan offers for the £19m defender. The coach said: “He is an important player who finds himself in a difficult position. Playing international matches when you have not played for your club for a month is difficult. I hope his situation improves.”