Harvey Elliott faces an uncertain future at Aston Villa after being frozen out of the first team squadplaceholder image
Harvey Elliott faces an uncertain future at Aston Villa after being frozen out of the first team squad | Getty Images/ Canva
Liverpool and Aston Villa may have to enter into a difficult conversation
High-flying Aston Villa and Premier League holders Liverpool have been urged to get around the table and make a new agreement surrounding the future of Harvey Elliott to avoid wasting a chunk of the young footballer’s career.
The Villa Park side saw off stiff competition from German side RB Leipzig to make the deal happen, while Sky Sports also reported at the time that the youngster had already turned down opportunities to join both West Ham and Fulham earlier in the summer.
Elliott had played nearly 150 times for Liverpool under both Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot, but saw his opportunities reduced last season. However, he’s bizarrely played even less for Aston Villa this term, with Unai Emery leaving Elliott out of the matchday squad for all of the last 15 league matches despite no injury concerns.
Why isn’t Harvey Elliott playing for Aston Villa?
It’s widely been reported that Aston Villa have to sign Elliott for £35m if he makes ten or more appearances for the club during his loan spell. If he fails to reach that threshold the deal won’t take place and he’ll return to Liverpool instead once his loan move expires. The 22-year-old has made seven appearances so far across all competitions, including four in the Premier League. He’s started once in the league and once in the Carabao Cup but has otherwise had to settle for substitute outings.
Elliott didn’t make a great impact in the games he played, scoring just once. However, nobody in the Villa team was performing to the level the club’s at now. As it stands, it appears Villa are reluctant to sign Elliott on a permanent basis and are instead leaving him to train with the first team without getting any action, in what’s starting to look like a bizarre set of circumstances.
Aston Villa urged to have ‘grown up’ conversations with Liverpool
When Elliott dazzled for England at the Under-21 European Championships last summer many believed that this would be the season for him to propel himself into Thomas Tuchel’s first team Three Lions squad.
The 22-year-old scored a combined total of five goals in seven matches across the tournament for Lee Carsley’s team, including a goal in the final against Germany - finishing as the second highest scorer in the competition behind Newcastle United’s Nick Woltemade and becoming the second consecutive Englishmen to win the award after Anthony Gordon in 2023. However, he’s currently facing a challenging period in his career due to the stand-off taking place between Aston Villa and Liverpool.
Neither of the two clubs are benefiting at the moment, and neither is the player. Elliott isn’t really an option for Emery to call on if the club don’t want to pay for him, Liverpool aren’t going to gain the transfer fee they require, and perhaps most notably Elliott at this point has zero chance of putting himself into the spotlight for the World Cup.
“What if we said it was 20 games? What if we said that the obligation, we’re going to convert it to just an option? Would you play the player more, rather than effectively sending him back or sending him on loan somewhere?’ I think they can have a grown-up conversation around it. I mean, Villa clearly are not going to play him if it triggers it. They’ve been pretty explicit there. It’s probably a negotiation stance unless he’s completely fallen out with the manager, in which case he’s going to have to move.”
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