One Sky Sports presenter has branded Harvey Elliott’s move from Liverpool to Aston Villa this season as a ‘complete shambles’.
At the end of last summer’s transfer window, the 22-year-old joined Unai Emery’s side on an initial loan basis, with the deal to become permanent once he makes 10 Premier League appearances for the Midlands club.
However, six-and-a-half months on, the England under-21 star has only played eight times for Villa in all competitions (50% of those in the top flight), and there was even speculation over a potential exit to Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer in January.
Taking to X on Thursday afternoon, Dougie Critchley bemoaned the horrendous misfortune which has befallen Elliott since he left Liverpool in early September.
The Sky Sports presenter posted: ‘I feel so bad for Harvey Elliott; what’s happened to him this season is just not right. He was player of the tournament last summer as England won a second consecutive U21 Euros title. He’d played 127 games for Liverpool over the previous 3 seasons, but not favoured by Arne Slot, it felt like the perfect time to move on.
‘Whether this is Liverpool’s fault for not selling him, Villa’s fault for loaning a player under terms where they couldn’t play him or his agent’s for organising a bad move… He’ll be 23 in April, has only been able to 110 league minutes this season and because he’s played for Liverpool and Villa in 25/26, he was unable to move in January to another club in Europe.
‘What a complete shambles of a move that has cost one of England’s most promising young players a year of crucial game time and development.’
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Elliott’s move from Liverpool to Villa has been to nobody’s benefit, with neither club seemingly interested in furthering his career and the 22-year-old’s development completely stalling in the Midlands.
How does a player who’s clearly proven to be talented at the highest level find himself ostracised to the extent that he’s played barely over 100 minutes of football in the past five months (Transfermarkt)?
Slot and Emery have both come in for criticism for not giving the attacker a fair chance, and whatever his career might hold in store for him in the medium-term, it’s become clear that his future doesn’t lie with either his parent club or his loan outfit.
Villa have only eight Premier League matches remaining this season (one of which is against Liverpool, for which he’d be ineligible), so there is scope for Elliott to play a significant part in their faltering pursuit of Champions League football without the club having to commit to signing him outright.
He’d also be free to feature for as much of their Europa League campaign as possible without compromising the terms of the agreement with LFC, so ideally he should be in a position to enjoy frequent action for the remainder of this season.
Unfortunately, the evidence of the campaign so far would show that holding our breath on that front would be inadvisable.
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