Unai Emery issues clear Harvey Elliott update as Liverpool loanee’s Aston Villa future in doubt

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has addressed the ongoing question mark over Harvey Elliott’s future at Villa Park.

Villa signed Elliott on loan on transfer deadline day, bringing the attacking midfielder in from Liverpool with a widely reported obligation to buy him baked into the deal.

The fee is understood to be in the region of £35 million and will be triggered by Elliott’s tenth appearance for Villa. Despite the pedigree of the former England Under-21 captain, even that meagre milestone seems unlikely to be met.

‘We are not thinking about the transfer window’

Elliott’s lack of involvement in consecutive Premier League matchdays squads has increased speculation that Villa and Liverpool could seek an alternative way out of the agreement, a very unsatisfactory state of affairs for a player who must have had designs on the World Cup next summer.

“We now have a lot of matches. We must focus on each match with the players we have now,” said Villa manager Emery when asked about Elliott’s status.

“We are not thinking about the transfer window in January. He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then, we are going to decide.

“There are other players performing very well. This is the first argument of why he is not playing. He is training very well every day.”

Elliott has appeared in five games for Villa including four minutes in the Europa League and 67 minutes in Villa’s only match in the Carabao Cup.

Actions speak louder than words

He has played in three Premier League matches for Villa as well as once off the bench for Liverpool at the start of the season. Elliott’s only start in the league came against former club Fulham; he was substituted at half time.

Elliott’s future has been in doubt since that substitution to say the very least.

As other Villa players have returned from injury, Elliott has fallen further out of favour. He hasn’t been named in any of the last four matchday squads for Villa in the Premier League.

He was ineligible to play against Liverpool as his parent club but was simply not selected against Manchester City, AFC Bournemouth and Leeds United.

When teenager George Hemmings was named over him against Leeds, the fact that Hemmings is a more natural deputy for injured Amadou Onana couldn’t distract from Elliott’s alarming non-selection.

Emery tends to be full of praise when asked about Emery’s situation. He sees him as a quality player with a good attitude and the requisite dedication to training, and usually speaks as if Elliott is more likely than not to end up a Villa player.

But there’s no doubt that Elliott is one of a kind when it comes to omissions from the squad, no matter the work Emery says needs to be done to get him up to speed tactically.

The Elliott saga is past words at this point. Whatever Emery or anyone else says, Elliott is a potentially useful asset not only undeployed but not put in a position where it’s possible. Only appearances will clear things up.

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