And then there was one. If a sense has recently been discovered in the interactions between Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, and Liverpool, what about the lone individual remaining? What about Trent Alexander-Arnold, positioned on his own at a club where solitude was not commonplace?
We more or less have an idea of where his narrative progresses from here. And we are aware of how those who are against his decision feel. But what about the reasoning – his motivation – that goes beyond the apparent?
There are several discussions to be had on this topic which may delve into the questionable judgement of moving to Real Madrid at this moment, or the ego influencing the decision. However, we will return to that later.
For now, let’s have a more nuanced discussion about what this generational talent may or may not owe to Liverpool.
Meaning we should start with pups abandoned at the roadside, because Alexander-Arnold has seen a few. And understanding what he has seen might just be the key to understanding him.
He has been helpful in this regard — unlike his contract, he has spoken plenty about the pups. He talks about them very well. Which is to say, he has never been afraid to offer a powerful voice to the subject of academy football and the commodification of young men by their clubs.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to join Real Madrid as a free agent this summer
Having joined the Reds’ academy at age six, the right back has spent 20 years at the club
Both Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah penned contract extensions in the past few weeks
This is an interesting time of year to revisit his views — not because an airing of his decision is approaching, or even because Liverpool could win the league this weekend, but because April and May were always complicated months for Alexander-Arnold. By complicated, I mean brutal.
They were his months of dread, when dreamers in the academy system were awoken by the blade. That was cull-time in the hothouse, you see, with mates cleared away for strangers in the annual cycle.
Alexander-Arnold, like most at the top end, lived that way between the ages of nine and 18. He’s 26, so that accounts for a hefty chunk of his life and he doesn’t just know the statistics we tend to recite. He knew the faces.Â
This, from 2023, is only a modicum of the mark it left on him: ‘Think about it, the fact you have six, seven, eight-year-olds constantly fighting for contracts — it is crazy, ridiculous.
‘Even when you get to Year 11, Under-16s, you’re trying to sit GCSEs and at the same time worrying if you get a contract next year. It’s the transition from school and innocence to being paid and this is a job.
‘When I think back to my story, I put in all that hard work on a daily basis, sacrificed everything, but there were others who did the exact same as me and what have they got to show from it? They got nothing back from the academy when they let them go. They (the club) just took, took, took, took.’
It’s the ‘took’ that does it for me, four of them. So this wasn’t a speech for optics or an unguarded moment ripped from its context — it came from a 32-minute video on Alexander-Arnold’s website. He had brought in Steven Gerrard, Steve Sidwell and two players dumped from the game to hold an intelligent, passionate chat about what might be done better.
That’s what he was pushing for. It was something he felt strongly about, still does, to the point of activism — two years ago, he set up a project that is ongoing to find and fund opportunities for the discarded, because he knows, for whatever improvements there have been in academy policies, players are valued and treasured by their clubs until they aren’t. It’s a language in which he is fluent. Of course, he made it through, the last man standing, but he hasn’t unseen what he saw.
Alexander-Arnold has won every major club trophy with Liverpool – he owes them no loyalty
Alexander-Arnold and Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham have formed a close friendship
He is still close with Liam Robinson, who was let go at 16 and now works in drainage — sewers, basically. And Josh Agbozo, a team-mate from nine until 16. Today, he is an occupational health assistant.
When Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn (now at Salford City), were being labelled as ‘the pups’ in their early trips to train with the first team, Robinson and Agbozo were getting the other side of the coin.
That is how football works and must, but there are no soft edges and fewer soft landings. Some clubs are better at ensuring the latter than others, and Liverpool have tended to do it better than most, but it is always transactional. Cold. There are no shortage of pups on the roads outside Anfield.
So a word on loyalty — if Alexander- Arnold feels his debt was repaid by his contribution to every major trophy in club football, he would be spot on. And he should be allowed to leave with the blessings of anyone who has seen him play, and doubly so from anyone who understands what it took to get a minute on the pitch.
Turning the blade against the employer is nothing that hasn’t been performed in reverse countless times. Good on him.
Whether Real Madrid is the right choice will only be told in the fullness of his next contract, assuming there are no wildly late changes of heart.
But based on the most recent developments in Spain, and especially the suggestion that manager Carlo Ancelotti will soon be run out of town, we might reasonably question the sense.
At the same time, we can query where Real turn next if they do indeed wave off a man who is arguably the greatest manager in history. Contrary to hopeful speculation, I’m told it won’t be Jurgen Klopp, with Xabi Alonso very much the preferred option.
A move to Madrid would see Alexander-Arnold join a club that’s simply all trophies and no soul
But will the succession go smoothly, like Liverpool achieved with Arne Slot, and if it doesn’t, for which they have some previous, would Real Madrid be an upgrade in the short term? Second in La Liga, thrashed by Arsenal in Europe, somehow bloated beyond their norm by super-egos — this season has shaped into a mess.
I’ve always viewed Real as all trophies and no soul, a club that can elevate a player to untold heights just as easily as it can chew them up for no good reason.
A club where Gareth Bale delivered football from the gods in the biggest finals and was still booed, hassled and chased in his car.
He was a pretty handy player. Even better than Alexander- Arnold, actually. And there was a reason he eventually listed Madrid behind Wales and golf.
If Alexander-Arnold follows his path, he should leave Liverpool without blame. Those who seek loyalty from their stars might be better served by Crufts than football, where the road runs in both directions. As it should.
Rory McIlroy finally won the Masters
The most wonderful thing I have witnessed in live sport came at Augusta last weekend, when Rory McIlroy finally won the Masters. The man he beat, Justin Rose, topped a different list for acts of sportsmanship, class and decency in defeat.
As a measure of how some struggle with those concepts, consider the behaviour of Harriet Dart, Britain’s fourth-ranked female tennis player, who two days later was thumped 6-0, 6-3 by Lois Boisson at the Open de Rouen.Â
Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory marked the end of 11 years of agony without a win at the majors
Harriet Dart was heard making the bizarre request to the umpire in her Open de Rouen defeat
Dart was heard asking the umpire if they could make Lois Boisson put on deodorant
At the start of the second set, she turned to the umpire with a demand: ‘Can you tell her to wear deodorant? She’s smelling really bad.’
There are ways to lose well and there are ways to make yourself look utterly ridiculous.
UK Supreme Court ruling
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
It’s mildly alarming to think how much of a surprise that might be to those further afield, who couldn’t independently reach such a conclusion in time for the Olympic boxing last summer, including the new head of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry.
