Why Chelsea exile Alejandro Garnacho isn't the next Harvey Elliott despite tough Aston Villa start
Alejandro Garnacho played just half an hour in Aston Villa's first five Premier League matches, raising doubts over his future just a month into the season.
Garnacho joined Villa from Chelsea during the summer transfer window on an initial loan with a conditional obligation to buy, the details of which have not been made public.
But the 22-year-old hasn't played in Villa's last four matches in the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup, leading to inevitable comparisons with their abortive loan for Liverpool's Harvey Elliott last season.
It’s too soon to write off Alejandro Garnacho’s Villa loan
Elliott joined Villa in a similar deal last summer. In his case, it was quickly established that the permanent deal would be triggered by a number of appearances and that Villa boss Unai Emery didn't plan to go ahead with it.
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Monchi, the club's president of football operations, left Villa under a cloud soon after the end of the transfer window.
While Elliott spent a long season in an impressively dignified limbo, Garnacho's situation is only the same on the surface.
Villa's move for Elliott was ill-informed and misguided – a deadline day panic, by all accounts – and Emery never hid from his quickly realised lack of will to trigger a permanent deal for the reported £35million fee.
Garnacho's playing time and some of Emery's public comments about his readiness to play in a system that has become sacrosanct at Villa are worryingly familiar, but there's much more to it in Garnacho's case.
For better or worse, Emery is fully in on the Chelsea loanee in a way he never was with Elliott.
The Villa boss has spoken of Garnacho as a signing "for a long time" and, despite growing speculation and reports of a premature parting of ways, there seems to be patience and an assurance on Emery's part that Garnacho will eventually contribute.
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Alejandro Garnacho must convince Unai Emery quickly
Emery is an exacting taskmaster. New signings aren't always drafted straight into the team, with the manager frequently talking about players learning at different speeds what is required of them.
Nothing he's said about Garnacho suggests anything out of the ordinary in that regard.
The player is understood to have endured a difficult summer in his personal life, not to mention a tough time at Chelsea, and suffered a concussion during Villa's pre-season preparations in Asia.
His limited opportunity has been exacerbated by the emergence of George Hemmings in a new position – Garnacho's favoured left-wing spot – but a clear loss of confidence is going to take time to rectify.
Garnacho's loan could still go wrong. Garnacho could fail Villa and Villa could fail Garnacho, but the idea that Emery and the club would willingly risk the embarrassment of an Elliott repeat is too simplistic.
Emery won't be forced to select a player he doesn't believe is ready. That's really the only guarantee.
But if Garnacho puts in the work Emery is openly demanding of him, moving to Villa could yet get him back on track.
Topics: Football, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Alejandro Garnacho
Chris Nee