Andoni Iraola makes final decision on future of 23-year-old Liverpool sensation

Andoni Iraola has already made a lot of changes to Liverpool's first-team squad.

The Spaniard took over from Arne Slot at the start of the 2026-27 season and, even though he may have only lost one competitive game as Liverpool's head coach, the performances his team have put on display have been fairly poor.

Their most recent Champions League tie ended up with the club feeling rather fortunate as they just managed to scrape by Villarreal and beat them 4-3.

Their poor performance was outlined by the fact that the club went 2-0 down within the first 30 minutes with Virgil van Dijk being the main cause of the first goal that Liverpool conceded.

Moving away from games, many decisions still need to be made on the futures of Liverpool's squad before the end of the campaign.

And, although this will obviously take the Reds some time to do, Iraola seems to have already figured out what he's going to do with one of his current players.

Harvey Elliott will not return to Liverpool in January

Harvey Elliott has had a tough time of it over the last season or so.

During the 2025-26 campaign, the Englishman was left side-lined by Unai Emery after the Aston Villa manager decided against signing him permanently.

The deal that the clubs agreed on was that Elliott would be sent on a season-long loan to the Villans and, after 10 appearances, the transfer would be made permanent.

However, Emery only allowed the youngster to feature in nine games across the entire campaign so, this resulted in him basically putting his career on hold for an entire year.

This summer, Elliott was sent out on loan to Valencia to try and prove his worth and once again, things started off quite rocky.

But, thanks to his recent outings, Valencia's manager, Javier Aguirre, is now "delighted" with the 23-year-old.

This caused rumours to emerge about his future with Marca now confirming Liverpool's plans for the Englishman.

"This morning, Braulio Vázquez , sporting director of the Mestalla club, received a visit from Kiko Espinar, one of Liverpool's key figures in Spain," they wrote.

"During the meeting, the possibility of the player returning to England, thus ending his loan in January, was ruled out.

"The Premier League club's scout also spoke with Javier Aguirre and the player himself to ascertain the manager's and player's plans for the upcoming matches."

Harvey Elliott must get back to his best if he wants to save his career

Elliott's current loan move to Valencia could be his last chance to save his career.

The Englishman's performances over the last couple of seasons have left a lot to be desired with the midfielder looking like a fraction of his former self.

When Iraola was brought in, most people expected Elliott to take the opportunity with both hands and prove his worth.

However, that was evidently far from the case with the Englishman even being seen as overweight by Valencia.

Obviously, he's still only 23 years old so there is plenty of time for him to get things back on track but, if he wants to become a Liverpool player again, he needs to improve things rather quickly.

At the moment, it's anyone's guess what could happen to Elliott next summer but, for now at least, fans know that he's staying with the La Liga outfit and trying to prove his worth to them.

Being out of the English spotlight could be massively beneficial for Elliott, which, is likely to be exactly what Liverpool are wanting to happen as, the less he's scrutinised, the better he performs.

Here's hoping that he gets back to his best soon.