Harvey Elliott is clearly a very very good footballer – and yet even as he has inspired England under-21s to a Euros final, his Liverpool future is in doubt.
As Lee Carsley has found to his advantage this summer, Elliott has shown himself to have that rare knack for turning it on when it matters most, providing winners from the bench against Lille and PSG in the Champions League. His exploits for England U21s have done his standing no harm whatsoever.
And yet, Elliott has played just 822 competitive minutes for Liverpool over the past 12 months and is being tipped for an Anfield exit.
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Harvey Elliott is a victim of bad timing at Liverpool
A broken foot did take Elliott out of the picture for two months of the season, but he returned from that in November; anything more than a cameo still was not forthcoming until after Liverpool had already sealed the Premier League title and had nothing else left to play for.
That lack of playing time, followed by the signing of yet more competition in the shape of the enormously expensive Florian Wirtz, have led Elliott into a resigned climbdown from saying he was keen to stay and fight for his future, to acknowledging that he may need to leave for his own good just a few weeks later.
So…what’s gone wrong for Harvey Elliott?
Well…nothing, really. On a per 90 minutes basis, some of Elliott’s stats are genuinely excellent. If he were still playing for Fulham – or a side like them – he would surely be getting talked about as an exciting 22-year-old who was ready to step up to an elite club like Liverpool and develop into an exceptional player.
The issue for Elliott, ultimately, is one of timing. If he had been where he is now three years ago, he would have been even more of a relief to an ageing midfield that was dismantled and replaced by the current threesome in 2023.
If the current midfield trio were all hardy veterans waiting to be replaced, it would be a no-brainer to hold onto Elliott and re-integrate him into the side for the longer-term good. But that’s not the case at all. Ryan Gravenberch is 23. Dominik Szoboszlai is 24. Alexis Mac Allister is the senior member of the trio at 26. Expensively-acquired new addition Wirtz, is a month younger than Elliott.
There are always backup slots available, of course, but Arne Slot has seemingly decided that if he is going to accommodate a project player, he would prefer it to be Curtis Jones. Even he, at 24, is now out of ‘youngster’ territory and entering what should be his prime years.
If Elliott had not been unfortunate enough to suffer the injury at the start of the season, he might well have kept his place in the squad ahead of Jones, who returned from an injury of his own just in time to gazump Elliott and impressed the Dutch manager enough to keep his place in the squad, even if not always in the starting line-up.
Elliott is a very, very good player; he has shown that plenty of times already. One day, he may be a brilliant player. It’s just a shame for him that to get into that Liverpool midfield, you really need to be brilliant already.
Liverpool will know full well that chances are, Elliott will move a few places down the league table for a year or two and then pop back up with one of their immediate title rivals. But for the time being…they have good reason to feel like they can live with that.
As for Elliott.. that move-away-and-come-again move may be the best thing for him.
It happens sometimes. Look at Gerard Pique at Manchester United, Kevin de Bruyne at Chelsea, or, much more recently, Cole Palmer at Manchester City. All of them had clear and obvious talent, but found their paths blocked and had to go elsewhere to flourish.
Elliott may not be quite that level of player, but the same kind of principle still applies. There’s no shame in that for him. Sometimes, a move does just make sense all round.
