Emery actions speak volumes as Liverpool set to miss out on £35m windfall with Villa star ignored | OneFootball

Aston Villa’s latest Europa League group match provided further evidence that Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott has no future at Villa Park…

PSR-impacted Aston Villa had a sorry summer, but they looked to have a contender for signing of the window by securing Elliott on loan with an option to buy for £35m from Liverpool.

22-year-old Elliott headed to Villa Park fresh off being the player of the tournament at the summer’s U21 European Championships, and this transfer felt right for all parties, with the midfielder provided a platform to shine after being cast aside by Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.

However, Elliott’s move to Aston Villa has quickly turned into a nightmare; it is clear that the player and club are not the perfect fit that they first seemed.

Recent reports have claimed that the Villans only turned to Elliott after missing out on Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, with the loanee’s lack of minutes suggesting he has done nothing to change Emery’s opinion of him.

Elliott has only made one Premier League start for Villa and featured for 174 minutes in all competitions. He hit a new low at the weekend as Emery opted to select an unproven teenager over him on the bench against Leeds United.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Elliott was a talking point during Emery’s pre-Young Boys press conference on Wednesday, during which the head coach insisted that, contrary to reports, he has a future at Villa Park heading into January.

“We now have a lot of matches. We must focus on each match with the players we have now,” Emery said on Wednesday.

“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.”

When asked whether there is anything Elliott can do to earn more opportunities, he added: “Firstly, 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.”

But actions speak louder than words and Aston Villa’s game against Young Boys on Thursday night did little to change the perception regarding Elliott.

He was named on the bench but was not given a chance to shine despite Aston Villa having their latest group match all but won by the interval.

Young Boys came to defend and were easily overpowered by Aston Villa, who could and should have scored five-plus goals had they been more clinical.

Instead, Donyell Malen’s quickfire brace placed Aston Villa in control as ugly scenes in the away end overshadowed the match.

With Villa having the game settled early, the second half of this match represented the perfect opportunity for Elliott to come on and build confidence, but he was overlooked by Emery again.

With half an hour to go, Villa made a quadruple substitution as Malen, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Pau Torres were replaced by Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Buendia, Ross Barkley and Ezri Konsa.

Boubakar Kamara then came on for the final ten minutes to replace Amadou Onana, while Elliott was left sitting glumly on the bench to rue his summer transfer decision.

Emery was not willing to give him a chance in a relative training exercise against Young Boys, which had a needlessly nervy ending due to Villa’s wastefulness, so what hope does Elliott have in future matches? He’ll no doubt be back at Liverpool next year as the Reds miss out on a £35m windfall.