Arne Slot has revealed the decision on Harvey Elliott’s Liverpool FC future with his highly unproductive loan spell at Aston Villa set to come to an end.
Midfielder Elliott made the temporary switch to Villa Park at the end of last summer’s transfer window, on a season-long loan with an obligation to buy conditional on appearances made.
But his time there has been a complete dud, with the 23-year-old having played just 284 minutes across the season for Unai Emery’s side – making just one Premier League start and not earning a single top-flight minute since 1 February.
Elliott needed to make 10 Premier League appearances to trigger the obligation to buy but has played just four league matches and, ahead of Liverpool taking on Villa on Friday evening, Arne Slot confirmed the midfielder will return to Anfield for the start of pre-season.
And the Reds boss also expressed his frustration at how the current campaign has gone for the youngster.
Slot said: “I think for him, for everyone, it didn’t work out as he wanted it, as we wanted it and probably also how Villa wanted it, because you usually sign a player or bring him in on loan to use him.
“That hasn’t happened a lot. That’s not for me to answer why that is. But of course, it’s never nice for a player not to make so many minutes, especially after the season he had with us, where he made – I assume – even more minutes with us than these 280.
“He went over there to get more playing time, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. And for such a talented player that did so well in the U21 Euros [last summer], you want a player like that to get more and more playing time.
“He went to a very, very good team as well, where they also have a lot of good players. I don’t know why he hasn’t made the minutes he was expecting. That’s not for me to answer.
“But it’s always a pity if a player hardly plays for two years, let alone a player of that age that has shown during the [U21] Euros that he’s such a good player.”
Elliott joined Liverpool from Fulham in 2019 – scoring 15 goals and providing 21 assists in all competitions for the Reds since then.
He has one year left on his contract at Anfield, with Liverpool thought to be shopping him around to other clubs this summer, but Slot confirmed that he was currently part of pre-season plans
Slot added: “He’s contracted to us so he will be with us in the start of the season.”
