Harvey Elliot’s fall from ‘hot property’ to ‘benchwarmer’ has been remarkably rapid. Just this summer West Ham aspired to bring the England u21 trophy-winner to east London: The Liverpool star who is now cooling his heels on loan at Aston Villa cannot seem to get minutes on the pitch for love nor money.
His predicament serves as a salutary warning to West Ham United’s own ‘starlets’ that talent alone won’t get them where they’d love to be.
Guest post by Claret and Hugh reader ‘Pat’:
There are many young talented players out there who think they have made it before putting the hard yards in and sadly most do not fulfill there potential as many think they are ready because they have done well in reserve football or U21 international tournaments.
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Harvey Elliot at Aston Villa- struggling to re-establish himself
If the aforementioned player [Elliott-MT] was that good Liverpool would not of let him go and kept him for their own use but clearly the odd appearance here and there surrounded by world class players made him look better than he is.
Will he come good? With hard work and maybe a step down his talents will become more honed but he needs, like many younger players, to understand that just because he used to play for Liverpool that does not mean you have a right to walk into a club and expect to be starting.
Unlike managers and coaches who see players daily on the training ground supporters and pundits cannot see what clearly they do and the reasoning behind why they do not choose to pick the player for the first team…Much like Guilherme with us you have to ask and wonder if he is up to the task as successive managers have chosen not to utilise the player regardless of the supposed talent we fans think he has.
Yes mistakes are made and styles of play may not suit the player and so they get moved on- but if the player was as good as they think they are, then managers would be foolish not to use them so clearly the player needs to improve and be patient.
Football is not a forgiving sport and if you are poor and the fans see it then that kind of thing will follow you around from club to club.
So get your head down work hard and when/if the chance comes grab it with both hands until then be patient and keep quiet.