Trent, Salah and VVD
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I wouldn't go that far myself. He's still a good player. Just short of full idolised.
I also don't hate it as much as Owen or McManaman.
Its just a chapter closing.
Would have been nice if that chapter closed with some cash coming back to us.
Also would have been nicer if was a team that didn't beat us twice in the final.
I think he's very much softened the blow by becoming a bit of a luxury player.
We will absolutely miss his delivery, but even that hasn't been as good this year.
What's the sales pitch by slot though. Stay for my rebuild? Play the same position you thought you outgrew, that features far far less than it used to under my predecessor?
I can't think of a single valid football reason why he should stay. It's just loyalty/sentiment. And again, if what we are agrieved about is money, that's not love.
We will absolutely miss his delivery, but even that hasn't been as good this year.
What's the sales pitch by slot though. Stay for my rebuild? Play the same position you thought you outgrew, that features far far less than it used to under my predecessor?
I can't think of a single valid football reason why he should stay. It's just loyalty/sentiment. And again, if what we are agrieved about is money, that's not love.
His rat agent brother is probably laughing all the way to the bank.
And we’ll miss him more than people think. But that depends on how Slot solves the creative outlet for the rest of the team.
Thankfully Arne has seen several rebuild happen with success at Feyenoord.
Oh, and winning trophies is a valid reason to stay.
And we’ll miss him more than people think. But that depends on how Slot solves the creative outlet for the rest of the team.
Thankfully Arne has seen several rebuild happen with success at Feyenoord.
Oh, and winning trophies is a valid reason to stay.
Not if the choice is here or Madrid.
Accurate
It was expected. He was passing up a pay rise every week he didn't sign with us, so I always felt his head was gone, then the United performance confirmed it.
Personally I think it's worse than Gerrard and Mcmanaman because they were playing in average teams that significantly restricted their aspirations. Trent has no such claim. He has and can continue to win everything here. It's not as guaranteed as Madrid, but still. Ultimately he's just been seduced by lights of Madrid and the aroma of Judes ball bag. I'm not overly bitter, though, but I get why younger, more invested fans would feel that way.
Ultimately there will be loads of games we'll miss Trent, especially when he's allowed to be a playmaker against a load of shite teams in Spain, but there will loads of times when we'll be more solid and more effective with the ball in wide areas. He's never been the same player since he started drifting inside and his numbers have nosedived as a result, with no improvement in his defending. The likes of Bradley may not hit the heights of Trents ability on the ball, but he can go back to what Trent was doing as his best, which is dominating the right flank and helping stretch the pitch whilst providing our forwards in the box, all combined with significantly more consistent defending.
There's no choice but to put some faith in Slot/Hughes/Edwards squad building. For the shade thrown at Hughes, often from me just being bored, we can't ignore what he's done at Bournemouth. Slot also oversaw a rebuild in Holland and won further silverware. It's untested at Liverpool, but there's still legit grounds they'll find and buy decent players and the sky won't fall in.
Personally I think it's worse than Gerrard and Mcmanaman because they were playing in average teams that significantly restricted their aspirations. Trent has no such claim. He has and can continue to win everything here. It's not as guaranteed as Madrid, but still. Ultimately he's just been seduced by lights of Madrid and the aroma of Judes ball bag. I'm not overly bitter, though, but I get why younger, more invested fans would feel that way.
Ultimately there will be loads of games we'll miss Trent, especially when he's allowed to be a playmaker against a load of shite teams in Spain, but there will loads of times when we'll be more solid and more effective with the ball in wide areas. He's never been the same player since he started drifting inside and his numbers have nosedived as a result, with no improvement in his defending. The likes of Bradley may not hit the heights of Trents ability on the ball, but he can go back to what Trent was doing as his best, which is dominating the right flank and helping stretch the pitch whilst providing our forwards in the box, all combined with significantly more consistent defending.
There's no choice but to put some faith in Slot/Hughes/Edwards squad building. For the shade thrown at Hughes, often from me just being bored, we can't ignore what he's done at Bournemouth. Slot also oversaw a rebuild in Holland and won further silverware. It's untested at Liverpool, but there's still legit grounds they'll find and buy decent players and the sky won't fall in.
This is why we can't have nice things. There is no need for this kind of rhetoric.
Just realised I will need to go and re-do my avatar - which I do need to stress **wasn't** posed on purpose but taken by the mate I went with (who is a Palace fan, and we got 2 tickets for us vs. Palace) taking it and subsequently mocking me in multiple whatsapp groups for wanting to see the murals 🤣
His performance against Man U left alot of with a seriously bitter taste in the mouth, I had small hope for him before that game. I came to realise what @moron said was right about him. The guy is a bellend with a big head.
I give him season before they realise they made mistake and loan him out to Galatasaray
I said I wouldn't believe this unless The Athletic reported it. And they have
1. Great to have him come through the ranks. Thanks for all the great memories. BUT
2. We should have got at least 50M out of him for rebuilding - This was on the Klopp regime.
3. This lack of a fee will screw our summer rebuilding efforts somewhat
4. He does feel like a luxury player. His defending was our major weakness.
5. His head is gone. The Balon d'or nonsense showed us that.
6. Jude Bellingham was part of the reason this has all gone down.
Que Sera sera, we move on. But F him if he expects the royal treatment on his return.
1. Great to have him come through the ranks. Thanks for all the great memories. BUT
2. We should have got at least 50M out of him for rebuilding - This was on the Klopp regime.
3. This lack of a fee will screw our summer rebuilding efforts somewhat
4. He does feel like a luxury player. His defending was our major weakness.
5. His head is gone. The Balon d'or nonsense showed us that.
6. Jude Bellingham was part of the reason this has all gone down.
Que Sera sera, we move on. But F him if he expects the royal treatment on his return.
Not sure why people label him a luxury player when he has created the 6th most big chances in the league and 9th most key passes. From right back. With all his defensive frailties he's still a major part of our build up and ability to counter attack. That will have to be replaced.
Real Madrid working to close Trent Alexander-Arnold deal
By David Ornstein
365
March 25, 2025Updated 2:21 pm GMT+2
Real Madrid are working to close a deal to sign Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold as a free agent in the summer.
The La Liga side have been monitoring Alexander-Arnold for two years and doing everything in their power since January to convince him to join at the end of this season. They will have to inform their Premier League counterparts if and when a deal is signed, which has not happened yet.
Alexander-Arnold’s Liverpool contract is scheduled to expire in June and he has been permitted sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club since the start of 2025.
The Athletic reported in October that Madrid had made the 26-year-old a priority target before they saw an approach to sign him in January knocked back.
Alexander-Arnold is one of three crucial players — alongside Premier League top scorer Mohamed Salah and club captain Virgil van Dijk — whose existing terms at Anfield end in the summer.
The Athletic reported on December 4 that Liverpool had made a contract offer to Van Dijk and on December 8 that the club had made an opening contract offer for Salah. Van Dijk said before the international break that he had “no idea” about his long-term Liverpool future.
Having come through the club’s academy, Alexander-Arnold has made 349 Liverpool appearances, scoring 22 goals and providing 87 assists.
The England international played an integral role in ending Liverpool’s wait for a first Premier League title in 2019-20 and won the PFA young player of the year award for his performances that season.
Alexander-Arnold has won the Champions League, FA Cup and two League Cups during his 19 years at the club, having joined the academy aged six. He was named vice-captain by former manager Jurgen Klopp in 2023 following the departure of Jordan Henderson, with Van Dijk assuming the armband.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6226920/2025/03/25/liverpool-striker-transfer-news-targets/
Analysis
By Liverpool correspondent Andy JonesAll three of Liverpool’s key contract situations have taken different paths over the course of the season, and while Alexander-Arnold has chosen to not discuss it publicly, when Madrid are involved the noise is impossible to stop.
There has been a growing feeling that this could be the right-back’s final season at Anfield, and it is now at a point where clarity is required on all three of the contract situations because summer planning needs to be finalised.
Madrid failed with an enquiry for Alexander-Arnold ahead of the January transfer window. Liverpool stood firm, preferring to keep the player as they mounted their title challenge and risk losing him for free.
Due to the strong position Arne Slot’s side find themselves in, and the constant reports and speculation, it would probably serve all parties — clubs, player and supporters — to know where they stand heading into the final stretch of the campaign.
The backlash Alexander-Arnold experienced shortly after Madrid’s enquiry following a poor performance in the 2-2 draw against Manchester United makes it understandable why the silence has continued for so long. Nobody wants a repeat of that if Liverpool start labouring in their bid to seal the title.
Alexander-Arnold’s current injury — he suffered a high ankle sprain in the home defeat by Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month — would give everybody time to come to terms with the decision, if he is to leave, and ideally part ways on good terms.
Not all supporters will accept his decision, but Liverpool need to make strengthening the right-back department a priority in the upcoming transfer window. If work wasn’t underway already, then it has to accelerate as soon as possible.
Because for every big chance he creates. He also gives away to the opposition.
I said his delivery will be missed, but I think I find him to be a luxury player because he has to be really convinced to do the dirty work, and plays as if he's attempting to make a highlight reel rather than win a game.
So in other words, from watching him for the last three years. Luxury players aren't ineffective, they just expect their flaws to be carried and to get to do what they love on the pitch.
Fundamentally, Trent will have looked at the deal Madrid did for Mbappe, where they basically recycled the transfer fee they would have paid into huge signing-on fees he wouldn't have got. He'll have thought that he'd like some of that. He might even have hoped he'd get it from Liverpool, but that wasn't going to happen so off he goes.
He won't be the last. This is going to be a trend, and the odd one who ends up on the scrap heap because he does his ACL before he signs a pre-contract isn't going to change that. Frankly I'm amazed it's taken this long. Ballack made a good living out of it.
So what are we going to do? Sit on the moral high ground and accuse Madrid of being cunts and insist that we wouldn't do that sort of thing?
James Milner. Joel Matip. Markus Babbel. To name but three. Not on the same level as Trent, but we still shafted their old clubs (although who cares about shafting City and Bayen) and all of them will have been on inflated wages as a result. Free transfers end up costing the same, and they're harder to back out of when they go wrong as it's hard to shift guys on inflated wages (Joe Cole, for example).
And we've shafted lower league teams and newly relegated-ones by taking their best players on reduced fees, or we've exploited release clauses, and patted ourselves on the back for "seizing an opportunity". We only managed to sign Mo because Roma had to trigger a profit to avoid FFP penalties.
Sorry lads, capitalism rules football. Not saying it's right (it isn't) but that's the way it is. Full disclosure, I can't really blame Trent for having his head turned, but it's especially sad when it's a local kid who was a fan.
You need to be ruthless to win at transfers - sign players going out of contract, exploit release fees, prey on vulnerable clubs, pull out the stops to sell those on our own books who are running their deals down. More churn is the way to go.
I don't like it any more than you do.
He won't be the last. This is going to be a trend, and the odd one who ends up on the scrap heap because he does his ACL before he signs a pre-contract isn't going to change that. Frankly I'm amazed it's taken this long. Ballack made a good living out of it.
So what are we going to do? Sit on the moral high ground and accuse Madrid of being cunts and insist that we wouldn't do that sort of thing?
James Milner. Joel Matip. Markus Babbel. To name but three. Not on the same level as Trent, but we still shafted their old clubs (although who cares about shafting City and Bayen) and all of them will have been on inflated wages as a result. Free transfers end up costing the same, and they're harder to back out of when they go wrong as it's hard to shift guys on inflated wages (Joe Cole, for example).
And we've shafted lower league teams and newly relegated-ones by taking their best players on reduced fees, or we've exploited release clauses, and patted ourselves on the back for "seizing an opportunity". We only managed to sign Mo because Roma had to trigger a profit to avoid FFP penalties.
Sorry lads, capitalism rules football. Not saying it's right (it isn't) but that's the way it is. Full disclosure, I can't really blame Trent for having his head turned, but it's especially sad when it's a local kid who was a fan.
You need to be ruthless to win at transfers - sign players going out of contract, exploit release fees, prey on vulnerable clubs, pull out the stops to sell those on our own books who are running their deals down. More churn is the way to go.
I don't like it any more than you do.
Thats stretching the truth to the extreme, but yeah his defensive frailties wont be missed.
His brother/agent will no doubt get a big pay day as well.
Probably because he is a luxury player. Doesn't fit the system. Doesn't even want to play in his position. Deemed by Slot to be the 8th best CM in the team. Rarely uses his pace because working hard is just not how he wants to play.
Yes he is a good footballer, but he's starting to look a bit more like a James Ward Prowse than he is a Roberto Carlos.
Yeah, that's the reason I posted that. Something has. The Athletic has reported on it. They are ON the ball with sources. It's definitely happening.
Not sure I agree about not fitting the system but it doesn't matter anyway.
Ward Prowse isn't even in the top 100 in the PL for either category I posted btw.
Anyway, he's off and we can finally look forward and sign someone who wants to play for us.
