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3 hours ago
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Trent Alexander-Arnold has been with Liverpool Football Club in some capacity since he was six years old.
Twenty years later, the right-back has played a key role in two Premier League titles, a UEFA Champions League title, an FA Cup, an EFL Cup, a UEFA Super Cup, and a FIFA Club World Cup — a list up there among the all-time greats in Liverpool club history.
Yet with Alexander-Arnold set to leave the club on a free transfer to join Real Madrid this summer at the expiration of his contract, a loud contingent of Liverpool fans would rather focus on what he has not done, creating fictional scenarios to illustrate what Alexander-Arnold could have accomplished at Liverpool to deride him for what he is giving up.
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Football players are, of course, used to negative feedback to certain decisions or on-field play, but even Arne Slot admitted this has been a bit more of a reaction than usual.
"That people have an opinion about us, if it is Trent or me or someone else, is not new for anyone," the Liverpool manager said. "Probably it's a bit more now for him than he is used to and probably a bit more negative, but I don't follow all of this. I am not here to tell the fans how they should react."
Maybe Slot doesn't feel it's his place to opine in such a way, but he seems to be holding something back.
In pure footballing terms, nothing imagined, nothing conjured, nothing supposed can erase what Alexander-Arnold has already accomplished with Liverpool. Nothing can diminish his immense role within those achievements, and nothing can devalue his contributions to elevating the club back to its elite status amongst not just English football but on the world stage.
Liverpool is a leader among global super clubs when it comes to placing a particularly high value on its locale, whether it be player development, community engagement, or supporter togetherness across Merseyside. This has been the case throughout Liverpool's history, but it was heightened and strengthened by the trauma caused by the Hillsborough Disaster.
The atmosphere around and throughout the club's supporter base and its connection therein undoubtedly makes the place special. "It's almost like an island siege mentality and everyone's trying to get us, but we're strong together," former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch said. "And when you're on the inside of that, it's a superpower. For every single Liverpool fan in Liverpool, it's the only thing that matters."
Crouch nails it, but therein lies the problem. Players within the Liverpool squad should not be treated differently than those at other major clubs, who all move, change, sign contracts, force transfers, and build careers befitting of each individual's personal aspirations and priorities.
Alexander-Arnold is a special player. Developed by Liverpool, he has not only won a litany of trophies important to rebuilding the club's positioning on a domestic and global scale, but he has also personally impacted modern football in a unique way. His skill set and profile as a full-back/midfielder hybrid are one-of-one at the top European level, and he contributes on the pitch in special and exhilarating ways.
For anyone — especially those provided peak football joy and delirium from his direct contributions — to use that specific and rare profile against him on such an occasion is sorely misled.
"If this is [Virgil] Van Dijk or this is [Mohamed] Salah, it's not the same situation," said Danny Higginbotham on NBC Sports. "For the fans, they feel as this is one of their own, and they will feel betrayed.
"I go back to when I was playing: I grew up at Manchester United, a few years behind the class of '92. What I try to do is liken it to someone like Ryan Giggs at the time... there was sort of this thing where it was 'hang on a second, he's one of our own, it doesn't get any better than this.' So if he leaves, that's basically him saying to us that he doesn't want to be one of us anymore."
Why should homegrown players be held hostage at their boyhood club solely because they were raised and developed there? What has Alexander-Arnold done to deserve this outrage, whereas other players can come and go as they please?
Liverpool are unlikely to see another player quite like Trent Alexander-Arnold again, and that no doubt makes his loss even more painful. Yet Liverpool are also well-equipped to replace him, on both an on-field and off-field level. For starters, Conor Bradley is a Liverpool academy product of great promise in his very position.
The Reds are not unrivaled in such a particular situation. The famous La Masia academy and its graduates are held close to the heart of Barcelona fan culture, but the departure of such players would not generally be met with vitriol, as they know more will come through. Even a club like Athletic Bilbao, who religiously self-regulate their player acquisition to only those from the Basque region, knew that a decorated homegrown player like Javi Martinez, for example, would eventually wish to test himself elsewhere.
To portray Alexander-Arnold's decision to depart as some sort of betrayal is not only a gross misunderstanding of modern football and the life of a professional athlete, but it's a complete disregard for the vast contributions the individual has brought to Liverpool at both the club and supporter level.
To Liverpool and England fans, and all those who appreciate the purity that comes with a story such as his, celebrate what Alexander-Arnold represents and has accomplished before all else. It's completely understandable that his decision not to stay is a blow to the ego: what does Real Madrid have that we do not? What could he be giving up for this decision? What does he see in supposedly greener pastures? Those question are natural, but they are misleading.
Alexander-Arnold is Liverpool through and through, even if it seems he has decided to turn his back on the city and fanbase. What more does he owe the club? It's natural for a player to want to test themselves abroad, and this Real Madrid opportunity would not come again — it was take it or leave it.
Alexander-Arnold will now get to play with an international teammate in Jude Bellingham at Europe's most successful club, likely in a Xabi Alonso system that perfectly suits his playing style. How hard it must have been to turn that opportunity down.
Whether Alexander-Arnold sinks or swims at Real Madrid, he has done the only thing he felt best for him: try. What more can we expect of a footballer than that?
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