Insider Keith Wyness has told Liverpool they were “wrong” to get rid of a player who could now move to one of the Premier League’s newly-promoted sides.
The Reds finished fifth in the league, a season after they won it under Arne Slot. It was a very underwhelming season with a far more expensive squad than the season before – after a spend of around £450million.
They saw big names such as Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold move onto pastures new, while Harvey Elliott was loaned out to Aston Villa, with an obligation to buy at a certain point that they made sure they never got to.
Elliott essentially sat on the bench all season, and Wyness feels he’d have been better served back at Liverpool, though he may not remain there long.
He told Football Insider: “I would imagine that one of the promoted clubs would be looking at Harvey.
“He would certainly be very keen to prove his worth again. He’s got a lot to prove and also his legs haven’t been shot from another season, so there’s an asset there that people have got to think about.
“I know Harvey Elliott is a good player and Liverpool were wrong to have got rid of him. They might have had a better season if they had stuck with him.
“I talked with a lot of my Liverpool contacts about this, and they tend to agree that he has that heart and ability that seems to be missing a little bit in Liverpool right now. He is a talent, and he will prove to be very good.”
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Elliott needs to play
Wherever Elliott is next season, Liverpool or otherwise, he needs to play football. He’s just come off the back of a season in which he was on the pitch for 284 minutes, which for a 23-year-old who starred for England under-21s and can’t have been far off the Three Lions’ first team, isn’t close to enough.
Unai Emery clearly didn’t rate him enough at Aston Villa to give him the minutes which would have triggered his permanent signing, and it’s hard to argue with that given Villa won the Europa League and finished fourth in the Premier League.
Liverpool could well have done with him, though, failing in every competition they played in.
Indeed, Elliott was directly involved in eight goals in 28 games last season. For a player who didn’t play all too consistently, those returns aren’t bad at all.
It seems unlikely the Reds will bring him back into the fold, but at 23 years old, Elliott still has an awful lot to give.