New Liverpool headache as Emery confirms Aston Villa decision on Elliott

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has revealed that Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott “definitely” won’t be getting a permanent contract.

The 22-year-old looks set to return to Anfield after thinking that his Liverpool chapter was over when he moved to Villa Park in the summer. Although Elliott’s transfer was only a loan, it included an easy-to-trigger purchase obligation.

All the England youth international had to do was play 10 games for Aston Villa to join permanently, but this now looks highly unlikely to happen. Elliott has not played a single minute of football since early October and has not travelled with Villa for their Europa League clash with Basel.

Speaking ahead of the game in Switzerland, Villa boss Emery confirmed that Elliott will not be signed permanently. “We are speaking with him and about his situation,” the Spaniard began. “He is not here with us. Hopefully, we can get the best for him and the best for us. I respect him as a player and as a person.

“He is training well, but we have one circumstance with him. Hopefully, we can get a solution for him to try to play consistently and try to continue in his career with us or not. I have spoken with him two or three times about the situation we have with him. Firstly, my decision and also the situation. He is on loan playing with us, but he is not definitely adding to us with a permanent contract.”

Elliott to return to Liverpool in January?

While Emery did not reveal whether Villa will look to send Elliott back to Liverpool in January, this seems to be the only sensible course of action for all involved. There is no point in paying him if he is not getting any minutes.

A return to Liverpool could be seen as both a blessing for the Reds and a potential new headache. On the one hand, it will be a source of frustration for them to miss out on what looked a pretty much guaranteed windfall of €40 million, especially after a summer spending spree.

Given that Elliott has played for both Liverpool and Villa this season, he cannot feature for another club, which means that the Anfield outfit would have to keep him until the summer and then find a new solution for him.

However, there is also a positive way to look at this. Considering Liverpool’s struggles this season, a player of Elliott’s quality could come in and make an impact, and he wouldn’t need any extended period of time to find his feet first.

Liverpool only reluctantly let the 22-year-old go in the summer, so they are likely not looking at his possible return as something undesirable. It will be quite disappointing for the player, though, since he has effectively wasted six months of his career and will be right back where he started.

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