This summer, Liverpool spent over £400 million for reinforcements. So far, Milos Kerkez has been described as a youth player, Florian Wirtz is far from delivering in the Premier League as in the Bundesliga, while Alexander Isak, the Premier League’s second highest scoring player last season, has delivered 1 poor goal in 429 minutes in the red shirt. Harvey Elliot was already at Anfield and had delivered as a supporter favourite, but had to go on loan to get a place in the match arena. This has not gone as planned either.
We remember Mo Salah’s reaction, when it became known that Elliot felt he had to go out to seek playing time at Aston Villa on loan. It was clear that Liverpool’s biggest star believed that a 22-year-old on the rise, who has delivered in the red shirt, should not be squeezed out of the club’s huge investment in new players. This, the season after the Premier League title. Or as Salah put it: “Elliot is a Champion”.
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Now Liverpool are really struggling. The same goes for Harvey Elliot on loan, where Aston Villa have an obligation to buy £35 million after the end of the season. When Aston Villa announced the transfer of Elliot on deadline day, the club confirmed they had included a purchase clause in the deal, which will be activated if Elliott gets a certain number of games during the season.
For Unai Emery, the 22-year-old has played 174 minutes on the match ground, against Manchester City on Sunday, Elliot was not even in the matchday squad.
-He is a very good player. We just demand a lot, and some of the players in the same position perform at a high level,” Unai Emery explains according to the Daily Mail.
Liverpool had initially been keen to resist a late transfer for Elliott, but with the former Fulham teenager desperate for game time after winning the Player of the Tournament award at the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia this summer, Reds eventually agreed to a loan deal. After the summer’s wild shopping spree, Arne Slot could not offer Elliot more than limited development opportunities.
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According to the Liverpool Echo, Liverpool have included buy-back and resale clauses in their contract with Villa. We think Liverpool must now realise Aston Villa are unlikely to go for Elliot, while Liverpool themselves need players like Elliot, a midfield engine who has already worn the Liverpool shirt for 149 games and is Liverpool.
