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aston villa Playmaker Harvey Elliott Still exceeds specified requirements Unai Emerybut if he can do it, the transfer can still be completed after the deadline.
Villa completed their deadline day business without addressing the Elliott snafu that has plagued the club all season.
Instead, the Midlands have had a busy January, bringing back fan favorites Tammy Abraham and Douglas Luiz.
Abraham joins from Besiktas for £18m After scoring 13 Turkish goals, Luiz returned from a loan spell at Juventus after his nightmare spell at Nottingham Forest ended prematurely.
Brian Maggio and Alisson also arrived from Metz and Gremio respectively, and these exciting youngsters have helped strengthen Emery’s injury-plagued squad.
However, the elephant in the room has been Elliott’s nightmare throughout January.
The 22-year-old joined Villa from Liverpool on deadline day last September and has a £35m buyout obligation once he has made 10 appearances.
Emery is currently stuck with seven games after having him completely frozen for almost four months from October to late January.
Emery was brutally honest when he said Elliott wasn’t rated highly enough to justify spending the money. The Spanish boss admitted two months ago that Villa decided not to believe in signing him permanently, essentially leaving the midfielder in purgatory despite training with the first team.
Competitor Neither Liverpool nor Villa will reportedly make concessions during the transfer window. Emery’s side would have needed to pay a release fee to bring Elliott back early, but they have refused to do so.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have no intention of giving up any compensation to allow for an early exit.
Sources close to Elliott admit the player is desperate to return to Anfield as soon as possible (British Broadcasting Corporation), but FIFA rules prevented him from joining another European club mid-season as he had already played for Liverpool in the Premier League before moving to Villa.
That left him waiting until the deadline to see any sign of resolution.
Harvey Elliott makes transfer decision, Villa could exit
Now that the deadline has passed, you might think the midfielder would be in trouble until the end of the season, but Elliott may still have a glimmer of hope.
MLS teams, notably Charlotte FC, were interested in the Englishman last month but made no move.
Fortunately for Elliott, the MLS transfer window is actually still open until the end of March, meaning he has an exit route away from Villa until then, as is the case with other countries whose transfer windows are also still open.
However, according to the BBC Nick Macht This afternoon Elliott decided he has no interest in moving to the United States and may instead stay in the Midlands until his loan deal expires.
Despite his current situation, the playmaker is clearly not considering MLS options.
this Express and Star confirmed Monday’s deadline has passed without any changes to Elliott’s ten-game clause.
Villa sources insist that despite Elliott having featured in the past two games – playing the full 90 minutes against Red Bull Salzburg and then making a cameo against Brentford – the terms remain unchanged.
So Elliott actually found himself in an absolute predicament.
He only needs three appearances to trigger a £35m move Villa don’t want to make, but he may be forced into action purely because Emery has run out of midfield players.
It’s an absolute nightmare for everyone involved and an absolute nightmare for England’s Under-21 superstar last summer.
