We all remember Harvey Elliott bursting onto the scene with a couple of incredibly impressive breakthrough seasons. The same Harvey Elliott, who was hailed as their own “starboy” by the Liverpool fans is now reportedly facing an extremely difficult situation. After being sent on loan to Aston Villa from Liverpool, Harvey Elliott has struggled to find game time and faces a haunting debacle to be cleared in January, as he will have to decide on whether to continue at Aston Villa or make a return to Anfield and Liverpool.
Harvey Elliott at Aston Villa
It is no secret, and it is not an arguable matter that Harvey Elliott at Aston Villa has been a complete and utter failure so far. It has been truly abysmal the way the loan move has turned out. The 22-year-old has barely had any game time to explore his role and settle into the team. And even when he has had his opportunities, he has barely had any significant performance.
🚨 Unai Emery on Harvey Elliott and his possible return to Liverpool in January: “He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then, we are going to decide”.
“There are other players performing very well. This is the main reason”, says via @J_Tanswell. pic.twitter.com/H62YxW13vm
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) November 26, 2025
“Firstly, there are other players performing very well. This is the first argument of why he is not playing. He is training very well every day. We are not thinking about the transfer window in January. He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then, we are going to decide.” This was Aston Villa manager Unai Emery‘s response when asked about Harvey Elliott. He has made it clear that they are not thinking about the January transfer window. However, the situation is calling for all parties to think about the January window.
The triangle situation
Calling this the “triangle situation” would be very fitting with the way Elliott, Aston Villa, and Liverpool are in a triangular situation of difficulty. When Harvey Elliott made his move from Liverpool to Aston Villa through a loan deal, there was an added obligation. The obligation was that Villa had to permanently sign Elliott from Liverpool for a fee of £35 million if he appeared in 10 or more games for Villa. Now this completely shifts the narrative on why Emery isn’t playing Elliott in more games. The Englishman has made only 5 appearances for Villa, as Emery continues to omit him from the teamsheet.
Transfer theorists suggest that Unai Emery would like to spend the £35 million elsewhere, instead of spending it on Harvey Elliott. Now, one might suggest the idea of Elliott moving to a different club altogether and saving his season. However, that wouldn’t be possible as Elliott will have to move out of Europe (example: MLS) in order to play for a third club in the same season.
That leaves Harvey Elliott with just two options: stay at Aston Villa in January and play the remainder of the season, or make a return to Liverpool in January and fight for game-time.
Conclusion
That is one hell of a triangle to be stuck in and Elliott wouldn’t like this situation one bit. The primary reason the 22-year-old made the move to Aston Villa is to get some game time. The star-stacked squad of Liverpool, with their attacking options, never gave Elliott his space. He always had to fight for his minutes on the field. But not getting game time and minutes under his belt, even in his loan spell, is such a sorry sight. Furthermore, the whole £35 million obligation extends the difficulty of Elliott’s Aston Villa loan journey. As Unai Emery continues to ignore Harvey Elliott’s services, Liverpool remaining confused about the situation, and Elliott losing the option to move away to a third club, January is going to be extremely interesting to watch as this triangular saga will unfold to a conclusion.
As featured on Walkon.com