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Harvey Elliott's troubled loan at Aston Villa appears to have gone from bad to worse with the Liverpool star left out of their squad entirely for the visit of Manchester City in the Premier League.
Elliott has not started a game for Villa in almost a month and did not make it off the substitutes' bench for Unai Emery in any of their last three matches.
But now his position as a squad exile has intensified after being overlooked for selection in the squad against City.
Elliott, 22, has a £35million obligation to buy included in his Villa deal but now major questions are being raised about his future and reports this week claimed that obligation would only be triggered if he makes 10 appearances. He has made five so far.
Asked about Elliott this week, Emery said: 'I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players, and firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players.
'Harvey is a 10 number in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have. Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well as well, but his performance was not enough (up to this point).
Harvey Elliott was axed entirely from Aston Villa's squad for Manchester City's visit
'At the same time, we have other players who can play as a 10 and they are performing well, and I have different players.
'This is the main reason he is not playing the last matches minutes, but he has to continue working like he is doing in the training session and of course getting his confidence in the performance we need through him.'
Daily Mail Sport's Tom Collomosse revealed earlier this month that Elliott was not high on Emery's list for the summer transfer window.
In the one game he did start for the Midlands outfit, against Fulham, he was hooked at half-time.
Elliott felt he had to leave Liverpool to get more game time and boost his prospects of playing for England, for whom he is uncapped at senior level.
Still only 22, he has racked up 149 appearances for the Reds but admitted he may have to move on permanently.
'It was very difficult. First of all the decision to leave and then on top of that to find the best club,' he said.
'There were a few difficult decisions I had to make. I had to sit down and speak to the team and go into a lot of detail, but it was the decision that was made and the decision was to come here.
'The most important thing for me when I was making the decision was to be playing first-team football. I need to be in a team where I’m getting regular minutes. Whether that’s starting or coming off the bench, just having that feeling of going into a matchday knowing you’re going to play, that’s the only way I can improve now.
'The love I have for Liverpool is still going to be there forever, that’s not going to change, I’m still going to be watching and looking out for them from afar. But sometimes in football you need to be selfish. I made the decision to leave because I wanted to do what’s best for me. Hopefully I can start to kick on now.'
