Owen Hargreaves loves transfer Aston Villa have pulled off, he’ll be as good as Martin Odegaard
Owen Hargreaves has been left blown away by one piece of transfer business at Aston Villa.
There was no shortage of frustration at Villa Park in the summer after UEFA sanctioned Villa and Chelsea against SCR.
This saw a general lack of incoming deals being done in B6, with a deal for Evann Guessand being Villa’s first for a sizable fee.
Multiple pieces of business were eventually completed on deadline day for Unai Emery, with Victor Lindelof joining Villa on a shock free transfer to kick things off.
It is one of those late moves that have ultimately gone down well with Hargreaves, resulting in a glowing comparison to Arsenal star Martin Odegaard.
Owen Hargreaves piles praise on Harvey Elliott
The biggest piece of business to excite the claret and blue faithful came in the shape of Harvey Elliott’s move to Villa from Liverpool.
Coming off the back of a stellar U21 EUROs with England, the attacking midfielder was seen as a real coup for the Midlands outfit.
This hasn’t translated into regular minutes so far under Emery, with the 22-year-old afforded just two appearances since his initial loan move.
Elliott scored for Villa against Brentford, representing their first goal of the campaign in all competitions.
In that clash at the Gtech Community Stadium, the Englishman put in a shift, maintaining a 91 per cent pass accuracy while also taking two shots on target in between creating one chance in the capital.
It is this sort of performance which has caught the eye of Champions League winner Hargreaves while speaking live via TNT Sports on 25 September.
He said: “I think Harvey Elliott can eventually go on to be a player as good as Martin Odegaard.
“I think he is technically excellent. He hasn’t had the opportunities at Liverpool, but I think centrally, he’s a fabulous player.”
Can Harvey Elliott become the new Martin Odegaard at Aston Villa?
There is no doubt that if anyone can get the best out of a player, it is Emery, the summer signing now just has to wait his turn in claret and blue.
With such a glowing review from Hargreaves, there is no wonder that Villa fans are so keen to see more of Elliott in the coming weeks.
There are qualities to his game which reflect those of Odegaard, with both being excellent at progressive passes and non-penalty expected goals in particular.
Elliott already outranks his Norwegian counterpart in certain aspects, profiling ahead of him in plenty of defensive actions as well as touches and attempted passes.
If he can polish up on his progressive carries and his chance creation, then there is no reason why Villa won’t have a world-class star on their hands in the near future.
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