£35m midfielder could make SENSATIONAL Liverpool return | OneFootball

Liverpool made big changes to their Premier League title-winning squad last summer.

Richard Hughes, the Reds’ sporting director, oversaw the reconstruction of Arne Slot’s squad to the tune of £450m. The club broke the British transfer record - twice - for Alexander Isak and before that Florian Wirtz.

In order to accommodate all the new faces - several sales or temporary departures were required. We saw Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Ben Gannon-Doak leave from the forward line and there were big changes elsewhere too.

Caoimhin Kelleher, Nat Phillips, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jarell Quansah were also among the number to make way.

Harvey Elliott leaves Liverpool

And Harvey Elliott saw his Liverpool stint come to an end - securing a loan deal to Aston Villa that came with what looked like an easily-achievable permanent clause.

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Elliott, 22, moved to Villa Park for a one-season loan spell which would become permanent if he played 10 matches - according to a report in the Athletic.

At first it might appear inevitable that a player of Elliott’s quality would have knocked off those appearances quite early on in his Villa stint.

But it’s not worked out like that - and unless things change then Liverpool could miss out on the previously-agreed £35m fee.

Elliott cannot make Aston Villa breakthrough

Elliott has only played FIVE times for Unai Emery’s side - three times in the Premier League - and his prospects look no better for Villa than they did at Liverpool.

Emery has used Elliott for barely 90 minutes in the top flight in total but his Villa spell reached a new low on Thursday night.

With the former European champions trailing against the Go Ahead Eagles, Emery sent on FIVE substitutes and did not include Elliott in those changes. Instead, he remained on the bench throughout.

It was bad enough that the England under-21 legend failed to make the starting XI in a much-changed lineup.

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Elliott risks missing out on Villa permanent move

And it only served to underline his outsider status when Emery ignored him during the dismal 2-1 UEFA Europa Conference League defeat.

Sporting director Richard Hughes will be hoping the situation improves fast. Villa are close to their financial limits according to various reports and will not easily part with £35m for a fringe player if they don’t think he’s worth it.

Therefore we could see Elliott re-emerge at Anfield for another spell having initially joined back in 2019 from Fulham.