Poor Harvey Elliott.
Unai Emery flat-out admitted at the press conference that he is intentionally not playing Harvey Elliot (who Liverpool loaned to Aston Villa). Only reason is that Villa does not want to spend $40 million to acquire his services.
Villa must purchase Elliott after 10 Premier League appearances.
It is ironic that Unai Emery stated in the press conference “He’s a brilliant player, but he won’t play. We made up our minds two months ago we’re not willing to spend a lot of money on him right now… That’s the only thing. He comes in and trains every day. He is always good and he helps us a lot in training. I have to make a decision, but not at the expense of the individual. Because he is a very good kid and a very good player and he deserves better. Maybe after he is gone we can use that spot to look at other options.”
They made their decision on October 1st.
Only a month and a half after signing with Liverpool.
Elliot has not seen any action in the Premier League since late September — and back then he had started three games in a row against Sunderland, Everton and Fulham. He had also appeared in one match in the Europa League and one match in the Carabao Cup, and scored against Brentford at home. The first month after the transfer looked very good for Harvey Elliott, however since then — he has not seen any action in the Premier League.
Even though the mandatory buy option only takes effect after 10 Premier League games, technically he could still see action in 6 more Premier League games.
Harvey cannot sign with another European club this winter — due to the fact that he logged 7 minutes of play for Liverpool.
Harvey is an Aston Villa player – bbc.com
Early in the season, Elliott was able to come on as a substitute for Liverpool: coming on in the second game against Newcastle and in the Community Shield against Crystal Palace.
All in all, he logged only 7 minutes of play in those two appearances — and that is what ruined everything for him. This is because of those 7 minutes of play that Harvey is already registered to play for two European clubs this season 2025/26 — and therefore cannot register to play for a third European club. Even terminating the Villa loan agreement and moving to another Premier League team is no longer possible for him.
And what about Liverpool needing him back?
Immediately Slot shut that down by stating “Harvey is an Aston Villa player, and he should spend the entire season at Aston Villa. Any questions you may have concerning Harvey, please contact Aston Villa.”
MLS could be the escape route — or any spring-autumn league.
The Athletic states that Charlotte FC are already interested in Elliott. Last season they finished fourth in the Eastern Conference. There are many former Premier League players with the club. Villa’s former manager Dean Smith is in charge of the club, and their biggest star is Palace legend Wilfried Zaha.
By the way, the Ivorian joined them last year using the exact same trick. In 2024/25 he was registered to play for Galatasaray and Lyon; when the French did not need him anymore, he signed with MLS. It appears that Elliott is about to follow the exact same path.
A similar story occurred with Griezmann at Atlético — they also held him back in order to avoid the payment obligation.
Griezmann at Atlético – skysports.com
Clubs deliberately holding back players in order to avoid making payment obligations is nothing new. However, it is extremely rare for a club to admit to doing so — like Emery just did on behalf of Villa.Back in 2022, Atlético only allowed Griezmann onto the field after the 60th minute of matches. Atlético had to pay Barcelona €40m if the Frenchman played at least half of the games. Barcelona eventually sued, and eventually settled for €20m. However, the Atlético coach and/or the Atlético board never once publicly confirmed that they were holding him back on purpose.
There was a similar case involving Barca in the spring of 2023 — they essentially told Lewandowski to stop scoring near the end of the 2022/23 La Liga season. If the Pole had scored more than 25 goals, they would have owed Bayern a bonus. He ended up with 23, and the full story only emerged two-and-a-half years later in Robert Lewandowski’s biography in late 2025. Clearly, Villa wishes they could emulate Barça’s ability to keep secrets.
There was a relatively recent instance of a club publicly distancing themselves from their loanee prior to the fact. Do you remember when Bayern’s honorary president Uli Hoeneß clearly said they would not hold onto Nicolas Jackson: “For that, he would have to start 40 games, and that will not happen.” Although the Senegalese did turn out useful as a substitute, perhaps Chelsea and Bayern will still agree on a permanent deal for the Nigerian.
Harvey Elliott, however, is certainly not going to stay at Villa.
