Not unsurprisingly, reports from Spanish media that Trent Alexander-Arnold is intent on a move to Real Madrid appear to have been wide of the mark.
On Saturday morning, Liverpool fans woke up to a front page from the print edition of Marca which claimed that the Reds’ vice-captain wants to join the Champions League holders and has informed the Anfield hierarchy of his apparent wishes.
However, sources closer to home indicate that the 26-year-old has done nothing of the sort and that his sole focus right now is on helping his boyhood club to win silverware this season.
Trent rumours played down by local sources
Following those reports from Spain, Theo Squires wrote in the Liverpool Echo: “Cue mass hysteria. Or perhaps not. The ECHO understands that as things stand, Alexander-Arnold has not communicated to Liverpool that he has chosen to join Real Madrid.
“Consequently, from an outside view at least, the full-back’s future remains up in the air ahead of the January transfer window opening and the first opportunity for a pre-contract agreement to be signed.
“For his part, Alexander-Arnold has always insisted that he will not speak about his future in public out of respect for his boyhood club. But he has been clear that he wishes to see out the campaign with the Reds.”
Trent has a massive decision to make
In the same article, Squires also pointed to a report from The Telegraph‘s Chris Bascombe in which it was stated that Trent is continuing talks with Liverpool over a potential new contract (as per his ‘preference’) and that club chiefs are ‘relaxed’ about the situation.
That makes two reliable sources close to the Merseyside club who’ve effectively debunked the wild reports from Marca that the 26-year-old wants out of Anfield and only has eyes for the Bernabeu.
It’d be very much understandable if the right-back were giving serious consideration to joining Real Madrid, an opportunity which isn’t afford to many players in world football, but the chance to become an all-time great with his local team surely isn’t one he’d want to give up too easily.
It looks as though the Trent saga could run for another few weeks yet as he thinks long and hard about what’s best for his career.
The only advice we can give him is that he’d be just another cog in the machine at the Bernabeu, where the pressure to perform can be suffocating; but staying at Liverpool would virtually ensure him legend status for generations to come.
Where Real Madrid are concerned anything that appears in Marca can and should be ignored. The publication acts as that club’s mouthpiece much as Sport do for Barcelona.
If Trent does really want to continue playing for Liverpool, why is he taking so long to make a decision.
He shouldn’t have run down his contract, the way he is doing right now.
We have seen this before with other players, these guys are only focusing on these fat pay checks promised to them by other clubs.
We don’t know how much Real Madrid have promised him regarding the signing on fee and salary.
Sometimes it’s difficult for these guys to ignore the proposals that will laid in front of them by these clubs.
Let’s just hope Liverpool will make him understand that staying at Anfield is also a good thing for his career, if not then next season we could see Trent lining up alongside Bellingham, Vinicius and Mbappe. That sounds a little bit scary for me
This is just Florentino putting pressure on both LFC and the player. That is his way of doing business.
It is up to FSG not to let players go for free , I am sure TAA would stay if given what he asks, but the club have always been very hard at negotiating contracts and transfers. On top of that you have what would probably be the only club able to lure players from an LFC team that is in such a great form recently. So it does not make it easy for the FSG to come to an agreement since TAA can play both clubs into getting a better deal from one of them (and we know FSG do not like those kind of games)
Personally I think that LFC should not keep a player whose heart and mind is in another club, if he wants to go, the club should get rid of him and try to get something in return (tho it might be difficult given the situation).
Although I would love to see him stay at LFC for the rest of his career and become a legend.
In my opinion, Bradley can do the job perfectly (would need to find one player to add depth).