Widespread reports have Liverpool and Aston Villa close to agreeing a termination of Harvey Elliott’s loan.
When Harvey Elliott agreed to head to Aston Villa on loan last summer, it was always with the expectation that his move to Birmingham would become permanent. Certainly that was the intention behind a £35M purchase obligation set to be triggered if he made ten appearances, a very low bar to clear.
Villa, though, appear to have almost been caught out by the reality of that, playing Elliott in just five matches before deciding that they aren’t willing to pay to make his move permanent. Given the information on Elliott they will have had going in and that what his qualities—as well as a few limitations—were well known, it’s borderline preposterous.
To make a move for a player with such a low threshold to trigger a permanent move suggests you are confident in the player and want to make him yours longer term. It looks a move mainly engineered to push his purchase to a future window for bookkeeping reasons. Which is what pretty much everyone thought was happening.
It wasn’t, and now Elliott has been stuck in Villa’s reserves for months. According to reports from across the spectrum, from Fabrizio Romano to The Athletic, he won’t be there much longer with a return to Anfield now being worked on by the clubs.
The situation is complicated by the fact Elliott played for Liverpool before joining Villa in August, which means he has been registered and appeared for two club already this season. As a result, Liverpool cannot send the player out on loan again. At least not if the goal is to have him actually play competitive football.
Given his limited chances with the Reds last season as well as the fact that he’s likely rather lacking match fitness at the moment, it’s not likely that returning will suddenly see him play significant minutes. Still, with Liverpool dealing with multiple injury issues and Mohamed Salah at AFCON, chances should at least be better than at Villa.
Category: General Sports
