When Liverpool sent Harvey Elliott to Aston Villa over the summer on loan for the season with a mandatory £35M purchase clause if the player made ten appearances it felt like it was the end of the young attacking midfielder and boyhood Liverpool fan’s time in Red.
If that was the plan and intent, things certainly haven’t panned out. After making five total appearances for Villa, Elliott has been frozen out. Villa manager Unai Emery has been blunt about the reason, saying it comes down to them not
valuing the player at the £35M purchase fee.
As such, short of an injury crisis that forces them to play him for a handful of matches, he’s stuck training for the Birmingham club but not playing, and there have been suggestions an early return to Liverpool may be an option. Arne Slot, though, says that’s a question for Villa.
“Harvey is an Aston Villa player and he was supposed to be going there for the season,” Slot said this week when pressed on the issue of the on-loan Liverpool player. “Any questions about him, the best thing is to ask Villa. But then they are doing really well, by the way.”
Villa are certainly doing well, but that seems rather beside the point when it comes to Elliott, who seems good enough to at least be getting minutes for the league’s current third-place side. The issue, as Emery has previously made clear, is they don’t want to pay £35M for him.
“I respect him as a player and as a person and he is training well, but we have a hard circumstance with him,” Emery has previously said about Elliott. “It is my decision but also a hard situation. He is on loan but he is definitely not joining us on a permanent contract.”
Liverpool and Slot may say it’s a question for Villa, then, but it also seems clear in that case that it is a question Villa have already answered. Which means it’s now on the Reds to decide what comes next, either by relaxing the purchase obligation or bringing Elliott home.
