Aston Villa have frozen Harvey Elliott out of their plans during his season-long loan from Liverpool.
Fenway Sports Group's CEO of football has been urged to take control of Harvey Elliott's situation as the on-loan Liverpool man remains in football limbo.
Elliott has been deemed surplus to requirements by Aston Villa after joining the Birmingham-based outfit on summer transfer deadline day. The attacking midfielder moved to Villa Park for regular minutes, having been a bit-part player during Liverpool's Premier League title-winning season in 2024.25.
The arrival of Florian Wirtz for £100 million from Bayer Leverkusen pushed Elliott further down the Reds' pecking order. But despite being named as Player of the Tournament as England under-21s claimed European Championship glory last summer, the diminutive playmaker has been frozen out at Villa.
Elliott has made just eight appearances for Unai Emery's side. Villa have an obligation to purchase the 23-year-old for a fee of £35 million if he plays 10 matches. There was no break clause during the winter transfer window that Villa could trigger and they would have had to pay a fee to terminate the deal.
However, Christian Purslow - who served as CEO at both Liverpool and Villa - believes that Michael Edwards, FSG's head of football, should try to come to a new arrangement. Purslow feels that Elliott's valuation is being damaged and that allowing Villa to use him will ensure that Liverpool get the £35 million they are hoping for from another club at the end of the season.
Speaking on The Football Boardroom podcast, Purslow said: "I’m Michael Edwards, I would be saying to myself: ‘If he gets more minutes at Villa between now and the end of the season, his value will be maintained higher.’
“He will be a player proven at a fantastic club under a brilliant manager, playing in real high-jeopardy football to try and be in Europe, to try and win the title, to try and win the FA Cup, and to try and win the Europa League. All of those are minutes available to Harvey if they tweak that contract.
“If I’m Villa to get off the hook of paying an obligation, which means I’m now able to play this player more often, I should pay Liverpool a loan fee for that, and if I’m Liverpool, I’m happy because the boy is going to be playing.
“He comes back in the summer, hopefully he plays ten games more this season, at least. He bounces back, and he’s the Harvey Elliott he was last summer and is still worth the £30-35m that Villa would pay.“
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