Unai Emery is looking for a solution to Harvey Elliott’s loan spell with Aston Villa with the Liverpool midfielder left out of the squad to face Basel in the Europa League
Unai Emery has confirmed that Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott will not be part of the Aston Villa travelling party for their Europa League clash with FC Basel. The Villa boss has also admitted to having several discussions with the England youth international about his lack of playing opportunities.
Elliott has featured just five times for Villa so far this season, but a permanent £35million transfer would be triggered should he reach 10 appearances. The midfielder hasn’t been included in any of Villa’s last seven Premier League matchday squads, although he had been selected for their previous five European fixtures this term.
“We are speaking with him and about his situation. He is not here with us,” Emery confirmed in his pre-match press conference. “Hopefully we can get the best for him and the best for us. I respect him as a player and as a person. He is training well, but we have one circumstance with him.
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“Hopefully we can get a solution for him to try to play consistently and try to continue in his career with us or not. I have spoken with him two or three times about the situation we have with him,” Emery added.
“Firstly, my decision and also the situation. He is on loan playing with us, but he is not definitely adding to us with a permanent contract.”
Emery will experience a wave of nostalgia on Thursday evening as he returns to St. Jakob-Park – the venue where he defeated Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in 2016 to claim his third Europa League trophy – though he insists he wants to “build a new moment” with Villa.
Having claimed the Europa League trophy on four occasions, three of those triumphs coming during his time at Sevilla, Emery’s Villa side have been made early favourites to lift the silverware this season.
They’ll be aiming for a fifth victory in six league phase fixtures this midweek, which could see them end the evening in the top two positions.
“This competition is so, so special for me, Europe is so special … Why? Because it gave me a lot, a lot. Trophies, of course, and a lot of experiences,” Emery said.
“Every year playing in Europe for me brings the possibility of fantastic memories, and I have enjoyed each year, each competition: Conference League, Champions League, and Europa League.
“It was fantastic for me, and I learnt a lot through Europe and through facing different teams. Of course, here we won the third Europa League with Sevilla, we won here against Liverpool, it was a fantastic day and memory for me.
“To remember it is very good, but, but, in football I want to build a new moment, a new era, a new way, and with Aston Villa I am so, so excited to be playing in Europe … two years ago in the Conference League, last season in the Champions League, and this year in the Europa League.
“Of course, it is very important for Aston Villa’s trajectory, our players’ trajectory, and my own trajectory. I’m so, so motivated, and of course playing tomorrow here I can remind myself of the moment I had here … when we are meeting with the players, we are trying to separate each competition.
“We are focusing, and we are understanding: what does it mean for everybody to play in Europe?”.
