Trent Alexander-Arnold exit will sting but Liverpool can't argue with transfer reality

When Trent Alexander-Arnold told it was met with the disappointment that is probably being felt all across the red half of Merseyside now.

The right-back could not be convinced to stay. Liverpool had tried everything. The Reds offered him a financial package that would have made him one of the best paid full-backs in the world and the biggest earning one in the Premier League.

The confidence Liverpool has in continued sporting success and the commercial opportunities of being associated with one of the biggest clubs in the world that he grew up adoring were made clear.

Richard Hughes literally made it his first duty when he got the job as sporting director last April to call Alexander-Arnold’s representatives and continue the dialogue the club had already begun on a new deal. He wanted the player to know just how important he was. Hughes was taking on the biggest job of his career and he knew the three contracts of Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold were going to be huge parts of his first year at the club. He got two of them over the line.

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But having won everything there is to win at the club, Liverpool could not give Alexander-Arnold the other thing he wanted - a new challenge. When Liverpool lifted the FA Cup in May 2022, Alexander-Arnold had won every major honour possible for the Reds. The Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup. At just 23.

There was the challenge of keeping the Reds at the top of English football and surpassing Manchester United on 20 league titles while adding to their six European Cups. Liverpool look well placed to do both in the coming years.

But what they could not give Alexander-Arnold is the experience to do that for another world footballing giant in another country.

While Slot was disappointed, he was not angry. There may be some anger among the fan base even though they knew this moment was coming for a while. That’s understandable. That’s football. It’s tribal. It’s hard for a fan to understand why anyone would want to leave their team, especially when they’re enjoying a period of sustained success.

It would have been also hard to fathom how someone could leave after the stunning scenes at Anfield just over a week ago when they celebrated the 20th title. It is fair to question how anyone who grew up a stone’s throw away from the club’s old training ground and adored the Reds from when he was not much older than a toddler, could leave that behind.

There will be comparisons made to Steven Gerrard turning down the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid during his 27 years at the club. But he was motivated in a quest to win the league title at the club. Alexander-Arnold has achieved that. Twice.

Alexander-Arnold saw last weekend that as the perfect finale to 20 years at the club rather than a moment that may have convinced him to make a U-turn. That’s also understandable. At 26, Alexander-Arnold could have committed to a new long-term deal. He’d have been more than well paid and if the trophies kept coming, then he would have been more than satisfied.

Yet once he had the pang of wanting to play for Real Madrid and experience something different, it would have been hard to dismiss that. How would the mood change towards him if his performances dipped and Conor Bradley continued to push him for a starting spot? Football can change very quickly.

There’s clearly an ambition in him personally to see what life is like playing for another big club and experience living in a different country. He’s not heading down the M62 to play for Manchester City or even London to live in the capital but making a massive change in his life and taking it abroad.

There’s also the challenge of walking into a new dressing room at a club, like Liverpool, which is huge across the world but not being the local boy. He will have to prove himself all over again. That’s something Alexander-Arnold wants, too.

There is the risk that going to Madrid does not work out. But we all have career-defining decisions to make and Alexander-Arnold will be aware that if it doesn’t turn out to be another great chapter in his career, the message from some on Merseyside will be apathy rather than sympathy.

Yet there’s also the chance that Liverpool don’t continue to be as successful as they have been for the last six years. Alexander-Arnold does not have a crystal ball but he has shown courage to take on something different when it may have been easier to stay.

Nobody is asking Liverpool fans not to be upset about it, but maybe those angry should also see it from the human perspective as much as the football one.

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