There are very few players up for sale this summer that are as enticing or insanely talented as Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott.
According to the Athletic the England U21 star is available to buy with a handy buy-back option for €46m, but if clubs want to remove that clause he’ll cost €56m. And in many ways I truly think he’s worth that kind of money to an ambitious club.
Although Arne Slot barely played the 22-year-old talent last season, he did still bag eight goals and assists in 822 minutes across all competitions. That works out at a very decent return of 0.88 goals and assists per 90. And at the recent Euro U21 championships he averaged 0.94 goals and assists per 90 for his country.
Elliott’s rate of 2.44 key passes per 90 was the best in Slot’s team. And when we compare him to all other Liverpool players in the Premier League for league goals and assists, only Mohamed Salah had a better average.
And that’s largely been Elliott’s problem since he made the move to Liverpool in 2018 and then emerged as a talented right-winger. He’s always shown plenty of talent, but he’s always found Salah blocking his path to the first team.
To Elliott’s credit, he can and has also played as a playmaker in central midfield, but he’s unlikely to get much game time there over Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister or Dominik Szoboszlai. And with Florian Wirtz now at the club, that left wing is nailed down for the foreseeable future.
So in a way it makes perfect sense for Liverpool to sell Elliott. Had Salah’s form begun to diminish, the England prospect would have been his perfect long-term successor. But the Egyptian forward doesn’t seem to be slowing down and since he was signed for just €1.8m, his sale this summer will essentially be seen as pure profit for Liverpool.
However, that shouldn’t diminish what Elliott is and what he could become. €56m may seem like a lot of money that can’t break into Slot’s first team. But the young winger is an immense talent that can play on either wing or through the middle and, most importantly, could develop into an excellent player worth far more than that one day.
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