Liverpool legend makes bold Harvey Elliott claim amid Aston Villa nightmare

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Harvey Elliott and Liverpool are both having nightmarish seasons, and a former Red believes both parties would've been doing better had the midfielder stayed at Anfield

Harvey Elliott left Liverpool to join Aston Villa on loan last summer(Image: 2026 CameraSport)

Former Liverpool player Steve Nicol believes that Liverpool would have benefited from having Harvey Elliott around this season.

The youngster left the Reds last summer, joining Aston Villa on a loan deal which included a conditional obligation for Villa to sign Elliott permanently if he made 10 Premier League appearances for the Midlands club.

He made five appearances for Villa in the opening few weeks of the season, but was then exiled for several months due to Unai Emery's reservations over signing the player permanently.

Emery admitted at the beginning of January that he hadn't been playing Elliott because he didn't want to trigger the compulsory buy option in the loan agreement.

Elliott returned to Villa's squad in January and has since made four more appearances, although three of those came in the Europa League.

While Elliott's time at Villa has been nightmarish, Liverpool is enduring a forgettable season of its own, and over the weekend succumbed to its 10th Premier League defeat of the campaign.

Assessing the state of Liverpool in the wake of the 2-1 loss to Brighton, Nicol said that he could not see how Elliott staying at Liverpool could have led to the club having a worse season than it is currently having.

“I couldn’t say that [Elliott wouldn’t help], I think Harvey Elliott couldn’t do anything other than help,” Nicol told ESPN FC. “It’s not possible.

“I think he [Arne Slot] probably decided he wasn’t a first-team starter, but you’ve got to have a squad.

Former Liverpool player Steve Nicol (Image: ESPN FC)

“He’s still on loan but he hasn’t played at Villa either, so there’s maybe something that we don’t know that people who are closer to him spotted. Villa obviously decided very, very quickly that they didn’t want him.”

In February, Unai Emery called on Liverpool to remove the conditional obligation to buy Elliott from the loan deal that took the player to Villa, in order to allow him to play more frequently for his loan club.

However, the Reds have not budged – presumably, in large part, due to the two teams being in direct competition in the Premier League table.

Both Liverpool and Villa are vying for a top-five finish that will almost certainly be enough to secure Champions League qualification for next season.

Elliott being available to play more frequently would improve Villa's hopes of finishing above Liverpool in the standings.