The player’s future is up in the air with little hope of regular game time
Arne Slot allowed Harvey Elliott to leave Liverpool to join Aston Villa, who now look unlikely to make his loan move permanent (Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Harvey Elliott’s disastrous loan to Aston Villa has seen him make only five appearances so far, get axed from the squad and see his World Cup hopes all but disappear. But where exactly does the Liverpool midfielder go from here?
A move to Villa on deadline day seemed like the perfect outcome for Elliott. The Birmingham side are an upwardly mobile Premier League team, capable of challenging in Europe, who could finally offer the English midfielder what he craved: regular game time and a seemingly nailed-on £35m permanent transfer to a top-six club waiting at the end.
After a promising start to his Liverpool career when joining from Fulham at the age of 16, the boyhood Reds fan became a regular contributor from the bench under Jurgen Klopp. Called upon regularly to deliver the killer pass when Liverpool needed a goal, Elliott delivered time and time again, but never hid his desire for playing time from the start of games.
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A switch of manager to the more possession and technicality-focused Arne Slot seemed to offer a chance for Elliott to thrive in his favoured number 10 position. However, Slot favoured Dominik Szoboszlai in that role, and Mohamed Salah’s form throughout the title-winning season ensured Elliott got few chances in attack either.
In total, Elliott only managed to clock up 822 minutes in all competitions during 2024-25. His 2025-26 season is, however, set to look even worse from a personal perspective.
Upon joining Villa on an initial loan with an obligation to buy if the midfielder hit 10 appearances – a formality, most would expect – Liverpool chiefs negotiated sell-on and buy-back clauses into the deal, demonstrating their trust in a player who has long been considered one of England’s most promising talents.
But Elliott struggled to win the trust of Unai Emery, and has been stuck on five appearances in all competitions since mid-October. Only two of those were starts.
The first came in the 1-1 draw against Brentford in the third round of the EFL Cup, in which the Villans exited on penalties, with Elliott scoring the only goal of the game. The second, a 3-1 win at home to Fulham, saw Elliott unceremoniously substituted at half-time, with Emery questioning the player’s adaptation after the match.
Harvey Elliott of Aston Villa celebrates scoring his team’s first goal with team-mate Evann Guessand during the Carabao Cup third round match at Brentford(Image: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
Emery said: “He needs to adapt in everything, but I changed him not because he was playing bad. He was playing good, but I changed him thinking about the energy Emi Buendia gives us in that moment, and his skills as well.
“He has to continue working, preparing and adapting of us, understanding everything, then using our quality in his structure.”
Clearly Elliott’s talent was not in question when Villa signed him. Ultimately, however, Villa have been on an astonishing run of form this season with Buendia starting ahead of him. The Midlands club won 11 successive games between their defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, and are still within reach of a title challenge should Arsenal slip up between now and the end of the season.
His absence from even the bench suggests a larger problem, though, one which Emery hinted at in his latest comments on Elliott in his press conference ahead of Villa’s recent win against Nottingham Forest.
Emery said: “The problem we have with Harvey is that this year he is on loan, and in case he plays matches we must buy him. We decided two months ago that we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we would need to sign him.
“This is the only issue. He is training every day, always every day with very good behaviour and to help us in training sessions. This is not something good for him and good for us, but this is football and sometimes we must take some decisions which are not good for everyone.”
Villa have very publicly tread close to the line with profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) in recent seasons, losing their most talented academy graduate in Jacob Ramsey over the summer.
In this context, it may be more prudent from Villa’s perspective to keep hold of Elliott until the end of the season. They will likely have paid a loan fee to secure his services for the season alongside the commitment to buy, and it has been widely reported that there is no recall clause in the deal. Any negotiation to send Elliott back to Liverpool may well incur an additional fee.
With Villa flying high, there will be little sleep lost in Birmingham over Elliott’s situation, however. The player, though, has surely now lost all chance of featuring in Thomas Tuchel’s thoughts ahead of the World Cup, and with Slot seemingly not convinced either, he would likely feature little even if he were to return to Anfield.
Having played for Liverpool prior to sealing his loan deal, Elliott can’t be loaned out to another club this season unless their fixtures don’t align with the European calendar. This prompted interest from former Villa boss Dean Smith’s Charlotte FC in MLS, but Elliott is expected to reject any offer from across the pond.
Not only would playing in MLS represent a massive step down for the Premier League winner, but with Charlotte FC not playing a competitive game until February 21, Elliott would be facing four months with no action on the pitch.
Aston Villa’s Harvey Elliott during a training session at Bodymoor Heath Training Ground, Tamworth(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)
Yesterday (Jan 5), The Athletic’s James Pearce reported that there had been no contact from Villa’s end about renegotiating the terms of the loan, suggesting that keeping him as an extra body in training until the end of the season is the most likely outcome. At this point, it seems likely that any change in Elliott’s situation will have to come from Liverpool.
On the face of it, Slot’s side could benefit from a player of Elliott’s profile, who could offer another option in an attack depleted by injuries and Salah’s absence at AFCON.
Elliott’s availability would also take some of the load off the legs of Florian Wirtz, who is struggling with a hamstring complaint. But the Liverpool manager has been loath to play those he does not seemingly fully trust, as Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha can attest.
Surely, though, a player with Elliott’s desire and professionalism, not to mention his undoubted technical ability, could only strengthen Liverpool.
Elliott is a boyhood Liverpool fan who achieved what most of supporters can only dream of, and his tears at last year’s trophy lift underlined the difficulty of the decision he made last summer.
While Elliott will hope for more, a romantic return to help Liverpool – even if he still struggles to start – has to be the best outcome for all parties.