The Scouser in our team, Trent Alexander-Arnold, has been at Liverpool since the age of six and has excelled at every age-group.
Now; the Champions League, Premier League, Super Cup, World Club Cup, and PFA Young Player of the Year winner is inspiring the next crop of Scouse starlets.
Speaking with BT Sport and The Athletic, Liverpool’s No.66 was reunited with his former manager and Liverpool scout, Ian Barrigan.
Speaking of Trent’s formative footballing days, Ian said: “You didn’t think that when he was playing for Country Park when he was seven… when we were in the Walton and Kirkdale League, that he’d be winning the league [with Liverpool] the next time we won it”.
Jordan Henderson was quick to jump at the chance to embarrass his mate and asked: “Was he always a bad loser?”
To which the current head of pre-Academy recruitment replied: “Terrible! In fact, I work at the Academy now and I’m always looking for bad losers. The kids who get a cob on and lose the plot and honestly [pointing at Trent] you’ve never seen nothing like him!
“We used to play table tennis when he got a bit older, I think he was about 15 and I beat him 21-3. I always say, ‘Have you beat anyone at tables who’s won the Champions League? I have!'”
Never wanting to lose is often the sign of a born winner and there aren’t many better placed than Ian to give this insight into our West Derby-born defender.
If Trent’s everlasting legacy in the Academy is that he has inspired them to look for more bad losers, let’s hope we find another as good as him on the pitch.
You can watch the video in full via BT Sport below: