After months of haggling and being unable to settle on a fee, Liverpool and Fulham have finally gone to arbitration over the compensation for Harvey Elliott.
The London club want a hefty compensation fee for Elliott, reportedly demanding £10m, while Liverpool reportedly want to pay less than £1m for the youngster.
We have to say that Liverpool’s valuation of under £1m for a player who is the youngest to ever appear in the Premier League and a graduate from a category one academy seems a little low, but even if the fee they have to pay is £10m, that may still represent a bargain.
Yes, you’re paying a lot of money for potential that we can’t be sure he’ll reach, but everything about Elliott so far in his career indicates he may be worth more than that already.
He’s a 17-year-old with four goals and eight assists in the Championship this season, and if he was a Blackburn graduate rather than a Liverpool loanee, we’d surely be talking about one of the biggest young assets in the EFL.
The last time a player burst onto the scene like this at such an age was Ryan Sessegnon, who admittedly, did score and assist at a greater rate than Elliott, but he was playing in a much different role.
Indeed, it has been reported that Fulham actually see Elliott as a similar prospect than Sessegnon, and the Tottenham-owned man was eventually sold for £25m, so £10m for Elliott looks like something of a snip.
Of course, football is about more than just goals and assists, but there is a good comparison to be made here with Daniel James.
During his final season with Swansea, James grabbed four goals and seven assists, and Elliott has already put up better numbers than that despite only being halfway through the season at Blackburn.
James was purchased for a fee of around £15m at the end of that campaign, despite being three years older than Elliott currently is, so it’s fair to say that the 17-year-old has already proven himself to be worth at least £10m.
This saga is reportedly due to be settled in the next couple of days, and Liverpool will want to pay as little as possible, and who wouldn’t? But even if they are forced to pay the £10m that Fulham want, that may end up being a bargain for a player as talented as Elliott.
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