Harvey Elliott headed to Aston Villa in the summer hopeful of securing a regular first team role and earning a permanent transfer to the Birmingham club next summer, with his loan deal structured in such
a way that a £35M permanent deal would be triggered if he made ten appearances.
So far, he has made five. And since has been frozen out. According to manager Unai Emery, it has less to do with whether or not he might be a useful player to a Villa side that find themselves unexpectedly in the title mix this season and more to do with the fact that the club have determined they are unwilling to pay the agreed £35M permanent transfer fee.
As such, short of an emergency injury situation that might perhaps force them to give Elliott at least four more appearances as a stop-gap, he’s been sidelined. Good enough to play, but not good enough in their eyes to pay to make his loan deal permanent, a situation that seems bad for all parties.
“We are speaking with him and about his situation,” Emery said at his pre-match press conference ahead of Villa’s Europa League match against Basel. “He is not here with us, but hopefully we can get the best for him and the best for us. I respect him as a player and as a person and he is training well, but we have a hard circumstance with him.
“Hopefully we can get a solution for him to play consistently and continue his career—either with us or not. I have spoken with him two or three times about the situation. Firstly, it is my decision but also a hard situation. He is on loan but he is definitely not joining us on a permanent contract.”
While having Elliott available might be useful to Villa—just not £35M useful—the parties most harmed by the current situation are Elliott, obviously, but also Liverpool. A year spent sat in the reserves at Villa Park will only stunt the player’s growth and make it harder to find him a permanent home for a fee anywhere close to that when next summer arrives.
It does, though, sound as if Villa would be open to alternatives, likely involving either terminating his loan deal and allowing him to return to Liverpool (as the player can’t be registered with a third club this season) or with Elliott staying but the clubs agreeing the cancelation of the £35M clause.
