The Spanish champions seem to be locked in as the defender's next destination, but he should have second thoughts about heading to Spain
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It had to be him. It just had to be him. After three became two and two became one, you just knew Trent Alexander-Arnold was going to have his say.
So much of his last four months has been centred around a prospective move to Real Madrid when his Liverpool contract expires in the summer. The prospect of walking away from his boyhood club for the bright lights and untold riches of Los Blancos, with he as their next ‘Galactico’, has felt more like a procession than a possibility.
Yet amid rising unrest from Merseyside and Madrid’s own fall-off over the last month or so, swapping red for white doesn’t seem like the fanciful idea it was not long ago. The emotion of Alexander-Arnold’s clincher at Leicester City to move within one more win of the Premier League title was telling in one word, the image of his shirt hanging off the corner flag in front of the away end worth a thousand more.
So here are the big questions: Why does this have to be the end? Could Alexander-Arnold really play the most badass hand and reject Madrid?
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It’s hard to picture Alexander-Arnold’s contract issue as separate to those of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s for a few reasons. Not only did Liverpool threaten to let the loom of their expiries run wild and loose with their season, but the trio have all come through in the same team from 2016 onwards. They are a cerebral part of one of the world’s most cerebral sporting institutions.
What’s different is their age profiles. Salah and Van Dijk, though magnificent this season and still among the game’s best players, will almost certainly start to decline over the course of their new two-year deals. Alexander-Arnold, however, is heading into his prime years and understandably wants freedom over where to spend them.
The love that Salah and Van Dijk clearly have for Liverpool was a driving factor, but knowing they’re still going to be contending for the most major of honours must have been a sweetener too. Arne Slot has already talked up the potential of summer spending and that his project will be easier to sell to targets with the club able to keep their best players as is.
Rival fans are trying to asterisk the hell out of this Premier League title, though that’s an incredibly easy feat when you aren’t a fan of the winning team. Even despite the Reds’ slight drop off through the spring, they’ve shown remarkable progress in a season where they were meant to go backward, so says the footballing script. They have seamlessly transitioned away from the rock-and-roll Jurgen Klopp era into one of more control and flexibility. If this is just the start, players from across the land should be queuing up to join the club.
AdvertisementAFPMadrid are crumbling
Madrid are still the envy of the footballing world, but there’s no doubt some shine has come off their sparkling mythos of late. Arsenal were more than deserved 5-1 winners over the two legs of their Champions League quarter-final as they showed off the various chinks in Los Blancos’ armour to the world.
The Gunners must have been shocked at how little they had to work to keep the reigning European champions at bay. Any semblance of a system quickly dissipated and resembled a gathering of mercenaries. All of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo were blunted.
Thibaut Courtois perhaps said it best – Madrid missed a Joselu, a focal point in attack. That’s what the Madrid of old could always turn to, be that with the veteran Spanish striker, Karim Benzema or Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet there does not seem to be much appetite to bring in another forward of that ilk.
Beyond Alexander-Arnold, Madrid are said to be looking at centre-backs, with William Saliba, Jonathan Tah and Dean Huijsen among the names linked with a move. That’s fine, they do need reinforcements at the back, but they’ll still run into the same problems up front.
AFPBitter Spanish press
You only need to hear the testimonies of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho to understand just how needlessly brutal the Spanish press are. What happens in England pales in comparison to the Iberian media machine.
"We cannot compare the pressure we have in England to Spain, in my experience. It's a thousand times tougher there," Guardiola attested. Mourinho, meanwhile, was far more explanatory: "If you want to compare the Italian to the Spanish or the Portuguese, then you can, but in England it is a whole different approach. For example, Portugal is a country with 10 million inhabitants and, like Italy, it has three daily newspapers dedicated solely to sport. In England there are no sports papers, just two pages in each newspaper every day and on Monday a supplement of six or seven pages. There is Sky Sports who talk about football a bit every day, but nothing more than that. After matches there is a flash interview lasting one minute and then a press conference for five minutes. You cannot compare the experiences, it is impossible. The English press is fantastic."
The drive to get Alexander-Arnold to Madrid has been clear and calculated, but you only need to ask any Galactico past or present and they’ll tell you how swiftly you can sink from hero to zero.
At his best, Alexander-Arnold is one of the most elegantly unique footballers to have ever stepped on a pitch. There’s never been a full-back who’s acted as a playmaker the way he does. That’s what makes him such an attractive package to Madrid, though his weaknesses are what will drive them crazy.
Where Alexander-Arnold was once a slightly above-average defender, his work ethic off the ball leaves much to be desired despite his physical growth and general standing. A performance like his away at Manchester City in February, during which he broke the unwanted record of most times someone had been dribbled past in a Premier League game, won’t fly under the radar as easily in Spain.
Getty Images SportNot even seen as Carvajal's successor
There’s an extra wrinkle to Alexander-Arnold’s proposed move which has snuck past everyone’s attention – it has been reported more than once he would not immediately come in and be first-choice over Dani Carvajal. What’s more, he wouldn’t even be among Madrid's highest earners or pocket a wage of more significance to that at Anfield.
Madrid seem to be riding on their laurels of ‘we’re Real Madrid Club de Futbol’ a bit much. If it really is Alexander-Arnold’s dream to go to the Bernabeu and wear that iconic kit and represent that club, then fair enough, you do you. If there’s any other reason behind wanting such a move, it’s worth at least considering otherwise, even this late into the saga.
Alexander-Arnold is already a king at Liverpool, borderline the face of the club – he already is among the local fanbase anyway. At Madrid, would he even be on the posters? It’s worth a thought, especially given there’s not a lot between the size of the clubs either.
