Harvey Elliott Situation “Embarrassing for Everyone” Says Villa’s Emery

While Liverpool have been busy wasting a year under head coach Arne Slot, with a title-defending side looking tactically adrift and short of fitness in May but all signs bizarrely pointing to the club hierarchy being intent on continuing the project, mistakes by the same club hierarchy have wasted a year of Harvey Elliott’s career.

The promising young boyhood Liverpool fan headed into last summer accepting he likely didn’t have a place with the Reds under Slot and agreeing a departure, but the only destination the club could find for him that met their valuation was a loan to Aston Villa with a £35M purchase obligation if the 23-year-old played ten league games.

That purchase obligation soon turned into a nightmare, as Villa decided Elliott wasn’t worth the fee and manager Unai Emery soon benched him. As a result, Elliott has made just nine appearances for Villa including just four in the Premier League. He has played a total of 277 minutes and made the bench once in the past 12 games.

“It’s something embarrassing for everyone involved in it,” Emery said as he prepared his side to take on Liverpool in the penultimate matchweek of the 2025-25 season. “My apologies for Harvey Elliott are every day in my mind, but we have our responsibilities. My responsibility is to the club and [Liverpool] have their responsibilities.”

After Villa made clear they would not risk triggering Elliott’s purchase clause, Liverpool had a decision to make. They could waive the termination fee and allow the player to return to Liverpool, or they could insist that if Villa wanted Elliott and his wages off their books this season that they would have to trigger it by returning him.

Liverpool chose the latter, fearing that to allow Villa to break the contract without punishment would be to set a bad precedent for future loan deals. As a result, Elliott has continued to waste his time and now an entire season of his young and promising career mostly watching Villa from the stands, his development put on pause.

For Liverpool, it will make it harder to sell Elliott this summer—last year he was Player of the Tournament for England at the U21 Euros—and robbed them team of a potential depth option that at times they really could have used. But hey, maybe sporting director Richard Hughes will get a medal out of it.