When Trent Alexander-Arnold pinged the ball into the back of the net – via a handsome deflection – during Liverpool’s 5-0 win over West Ham on December 30, he ran to the corner flag in celebration, throwing up a gesture that seemed to suggest that he was aware of the talk surrounding a transfer to Real Madrid. It was a moment of a player trying to assert control; Alexander-Arnold knew that reports of him moving to Madrid had ramped up in Spain, and so he provided a reminder to his current fans that he was still one of theirs – for now.
Things move quickly in football, though. Some of the rhetoric around Alexander-Arnold’s poor performance in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United was a little harsh. He has had bad games before – all footballers do – but the timing was inopportune, to say the least. Seven days on from his West Ham goal, and less than a week after it emerged that Madrid had bid around £20 million ($25m) to secure his services this January, Alexander-Arnold’s subpar showing rendered any previous celebrations irrelevant. His head, we are led to believe, is gone.
That might not be entirely true – or particularly fair. Alexander-Arnold is a world-class footballer, and a model professional. But there is undoubtedly a difference between his situation and fellow pending free agents at Anfield, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
The Madrid chatter is too loud, the interest too concrete, and thus this saga will only drag on. It already feels inevitable that Alexander-Arnold will be a Madrid player come the summer.