However, Villa boss Unai Emery soon decided he didn\u2019t want to trigger that clause and as a result Elliott found himself frozen out \u2014 playing just 277 minutes of football in all competitions across 2025-26.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows how much I love the club,\u201d Elliott told reporters after Liverpool\u2019s 1-0 friendly win over Wrexham in New York. \u201cI\u2019ve supported them from a very young age. It was my childhood dream. Putting on the kit again is a feeling like no other.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast summer I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to go out of my comfort zone. I thought it would take me on as a player again, but unfortunately it didn\u2019t work out. This is kind of a second chance, especially with the new gaffer. Hopefully I can get in his good books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having left Liverpool last year in the belief that he would get the regular game time that had eluded him under Arne Slot, being cast aside by Villa was a bitter pill to swallow. However, he refuses to regard 2025-26 as a \u201clost year\u201d and intends to use the experience as fuel as he looks to revive his career.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2276730770-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Elliott won the Europa League with Villa in 2025-26 (Stefano Rellandini\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cMentally, it was very tough training all week and not playing,\u201d he admits. \u201cI don\u2019t wish it upon any other player because it\u2019s not nice at all, but I have no hard feelings. I\u2019m on the other side of it now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manager explained things to me and the whole club were very apologetic about the situation. It was just about me handling it and showing my professionalism. I\u2019m not the kind of guy to kick up a fuss and cause problems. I couldn\u2019t control what was going on. It was a learning curve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to get through it and achieve something historic at the end of the season. I wouldn\u2019t say it was a lost year because at the end of it I won the Europa League and that\u2019s on my CV. I wish Villa all the very best. I have a lot of love for them. They treated me as one of their own. I respect them highly. But my focus now is on this season at Liverpool. I\u2019m trying to cement my spot in the team or within the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Elliott stays around for the coming season will depend on where he stands in the pecking order under new Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola. Pre-season gives him the opportunity to show what he\u2019s capable of and he caught the eye in the opening U.S. tour games against Sunderland and Wrexham.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndoni and his coaching staff have been great,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of detail in terms of what they want and what they expect from us as players. It\u2019s still early days but, once the majority of the group are back, everything will start coming together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t shown my 100 per cent yet and I think that will take a little bit of time because of the fact that I didn\u2019t play much last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure yet what\u2019s going to happen (regarding his future). That\u2019s a conversation for me to have more in detail with the gaffer. When the time is right, I\u2019ll go and ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just giving my all and trying to impress. Going forward, I need to be more kind of cautious with my decisions. I have to do what\u2019s right for me, whether that\u2019s staying here and fighting for my place, or whether that\u2019s potentially going elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m really happy to be back. Since the first day I walked through the door at the AXA I\u2019ve had a big beaming smile on my face. Putting the shirt on, I don\u2019t want to take these moments for granted because last season I thought I\u2019d done it for the last time. Playing at Liverpool, there\u2019s no better feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harvey Elliott says last season\u2019s difficult loan spell at Aston Villa took a toll on him mentally, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[13931,3450,403,99],"class_list":["post-793736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-aston-villa","tag-liverpool","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}