4 hours ago
3
Harvey Elliott has received backing from members of the Liverpool squad following his debut appearance for Aston Villa since departing Anfield.
The 22-year-old left the Reds on transfer deadline day to secure a loan switch to Aston Villa. Elliott will spend the campaign on loan at Villa Park, with Liverpool also inserting an obligation to purchase clause in the arrangement valued at $47 million (£35 million).
The Reds also possess a buy-back clause in the agreement, alongside a sell-on clause that will become active for any future transfer. Saturday witnessed Elliott make his Villa bow in a scoreless stalemate away at Everton.
Elliott was named amongst the substitutes by Villa manager Unai Emery, before being brought on in the 71st minute to replace Emi Buendia.
Elliott was unable to find the net on his return to Merseyside, but still composed a gratitude message on social media hours following the final whistle.
"A great feeling to make my Villa debut today," wrote Elliott in a post on Instagram. "A good point on the road, thank you for the away support. Onwards to Tuesday night in the cup!".
Elliott's post garnered more than 175,000 likes, including several from Liverpool players.
Ibrahima Konate, Jeremie Frimpong, Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Rio Ngumoha, Wataru Endo and Rhys Williams all liked the post by Elliott.
Ngumoha also left a comment on Elliott's post, which featured two fire emojis, whilst former Liverpool star Tyler Morton wrote: "So proud," in his comment.
Arne Slot discussed Elliott's exit in his press conference on Friday, saying: "Harvey is in a very good place going to a very nice club in Aston Villa.
"It is in the interests of everyone. He didn’t get the playing time he deserved for the quality player he is. He conducted himself always so well.
“It wasn’t only that when he said this was his club that he wanted to say this to the fans, he acted inside with him not playing so much.
“He was always doing what was in the best interests of the club. He deserves a big compliment for that.
“Everyone always talks about Mo [Salah] and Virgil [van Dijk], when we win the league, but players like him were definitely also the reason we could win it because he was always positive.
“If he had to play five or 10 minutes, he helped the team in every decision he did. That is partly the success of the team that the ones that don’t play that much that much have the right mindset.
“I think he is completely ready now to show the quality he has at Aston Villa.”
English (US) ·