-Credit:MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Given the ticking clock on the three big Liverpool contracts heading into 2025, it was always possible that one could be in the news as the final few hours of 2024 elapse. It is right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Nearing the January transfer window and with Dani Carvajal missing with a long-term injury, Real Madrid has now asked Liverpool if it would be possible to sign Alexander-Arnold this winter – before being told “no”, in no uncertain terms.
The interest from the Spanish giant has been longstanding and it appears to believe that it has a strong chance of snapping up the Scouser for nothing then the season ends. As it stands, of course, Alexander-Arnold will be available for nothing.
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According to the Daily Mirror, Liverpool batted away the Real Madrid inquiry before a conversation could even be had about a potential asking price. The focus at Anfield is exclusively on the rest of this season and maximizing the good position that the results so far have got Arne Slot and his players into.
Right now, Liverpool is focusing on winning silverware. From a promising position in the Premier League and the Champions League, losing a star man mid-season — even if it means losing out on a few million dollars — simply wouldn’t be worth it. Liverpool is likelier to win big prizes with Alexander-Arnold in its team and doing so will be more valuable than any incoming transfer fee.
Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold. -Credit:Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images
In truth, Liverpool giving such short shrift to the idea that Real Madrid could buy Alexander-Arnold in the winter makes things much easier for the player too. Leaving his boyhood club in the summer would be a difficult call but doing so with a league title within reach would surely not be something he would entertain.
Leaving on a high and going out with the Premier League won would be one thing. Leaving just ahead of that potentially happening in front of fans for the first time in more than three decades would be quite another. He will have a little longer to make up his mind.
But as much as this is very much the latest rather than the final instalment of the contract saga, Liverpool was never going to want to lose such an asset — not least because it still hopes to keep him beyond the summer. Whatever, if anything, the Real Madrid inquiry says about Alexander-Arnold’s future, the Reds have made their stance clear.