England U21 Star Left In Loan Limbo

English Premier League regulars Aston Villa and Liverpool have both had wildly unexpected seasons so far in the 2025/26 campaign, but it seems that one piece of summer transfer window between the two sides has become an absolute failure from both of their perspectives.

Liverpool entered the campaign on the back of Jurgen Klopp’s retirement after lifting trophy No 20, but Arne Slot’s defence of the title has gone monumentally wrong despite spending over £400 million. Villa had an almost financial meltdown over the summer and failed to win a single one of their opening five games, yet now sit third in the table having won eleven games on the spin ahead of the New Year. Even seasoned bettors using Football live scores would not have seen some of these results coming at the start of the year.

However, just prior to deadline day slamming shut a loan deal was agreed between the two for young attacking midfielder Harvey Elliott but it has been a bit of a disaster for the 22 year old as he has scored once having only made two starts and three substitute appearances. The loan deal had an obligated £35 million buy clause built into it and with manager Unai Emery deciding that he is not the player for him and that he has no future at Villa Park, he has barely even featured on the substitutes bench since the start of October as they are not risking that clause coming into play.

The player himself finds his more immediate future up in the air. Villa have no break clause in the loan and cannot send him back to Anfield without The Reds permission, and their gaffer Slot seems to remain adamant that he is a Villa player until the summer and that he was working on the basis that he would likely not be returning full stop.

Complicating the deal further from Elliott’s position is the fact that prior to the loan being agreed he made two appearances for his parent club, so the rules dictate that for the remainder of the year he can only feature for Liverpool or Villa in any of the English leagues. A more abroad to the other European leagues for the remainder of the campaign is an option but there has been no interest yet. It has been reported that former Villa gaffer Dean Smith is interested in taking him to the United States and his Major League Soccer side, Charlotte FC, but it is believed that he is not keen on making a temporary switch to the American game.

Everyone, including Elliott who was a key member of England’s European Championship 2025 winning squad, will have to wait and see on what happens in the remaining weeks of the January transfer window, but as things stand, although Emery was full of praise for his work rate and attitude in training, he admitted that he had decided he had no future at Villa over two months ago and that is hardly likely to change given how he has his squad performing at this minute in time.

A solution is likely to be found, but this one is likely to rumble on until the final week of the window really.

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