Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid: 'Contacts' made after Liverpool icon admits problem
Trent Alexander-Arnold is again being linked with a move to Real Madrid as his Liverpool contract ticks down - but the situation is playing out in a calm manner
by Mark Jones · The MirrorThe silence remains deafening, but for Liverpool fans it is certainly not golden.
This was already the case in the summer, but it has now become impossible not to talk about the contract impasse surrounding Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah after every Reds game, simply because they will have just shown how valuable they are during the 90 minutes.
It was there again on Wednesday against Bologna, when Van Dijk turned in yet another quietly excellent performance this season - focus may be elsewhere, but he's been first among Premier League centre-backs this season - Alexander-Arnold did his thing as he sprayed passes from right-back and played a clever role in the second goal, which was a world class strike scored by Salah. What and who else could we talk about?
The trio are linked by this ongoing uncertainty, but in truth their contract cases have always been quite separate. Van Dijk and Salah, for all of their many abilities, are 33 and 32 years old respectively, there are always several considerations to take into account when giving players of that age new deals, or at least there should be.
Alexander-Arnold, 25, a symbol of modern day Merseyside and 'the Scouser in the team' as the song goes, is quite another, and the deafening silence around him has led to the strongest links with a move away and the most credible suitors for any of the three in Real Madrid.
Reports in Spain have long made clear just how much the perennial European champions admire Alexander-Arnold, because frankly why wouldn't they? But the latest from Spanish outlet Relevo add a little more flesh to the bone.
They claim that 'contacts' have been made with the England international's camp, because that is obviously how these things work. Alexander-Arnold will be being sized up and asked if he fancies making the leap to join his good friend Jude Bellingham in the Spanish capital. And again, why wouldn't you?
But the report goes on to state that 'this is not a strategic signing' for Real Madrid, with a comparison made to the Bayern Munich left-back Alphonso Davies who is quite clearly running down his deal in Bavaria in order to move to the Bernabeu next summer. As he's been tipped to do so for about 18 months now.
With Alexander-Arnold it isn't like that, and it is claimed that this is quite simply a 'market opportunity' that Real cannot afford not to explore. If there's a car crash on the side of the road, you have a look. If a UFO lands in your back garden, you open the curtains.
Liverpool remain calm about the situation as they continue to adjust to a summer of change throughout the club. New ways of doing things are emerging, or perhaps more accurately the old ways are being returned to, but with new faces at the helm.
The futures of Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Salah - the three most marketable players at the club - have been tied up in all of this, but there remains calm from those inside the club, and indeed from those on the fringes.
Steve McManaman, who made the move from Liverpool to Madrid on a free transfer in 1999, gave perhaps the most detailed account of the situation that we've seen in the media before the Bologna game on Wednesday.
“The circumstances for Trent and how it’s come, this is well known," McManaman said on TNT Sports. "The sporting director and Jurgen [Klopp] leaving, so it’s got to this limbo, of sorts. Virgil and Mo Salah are in the same predicament.
“There’s been a problem within the club that it hasn’t been sorted out sooner. Hopefully, it won’t be hard for the three of them – in particular Trent – to get it all sorted amicably. I know they’ve all been talking in the club. I’ve been talking to the players, so it’s well on the way, the club won’t say anything until it’s signed, sealed and delivered.”
"Well on the way". "Signed, sealed and delivered". These are the sort of words Liverpool fans are desperate to hear when it comes to renewing the contracts of the trio, and those renewals do still seem to be the most likely outcome of this saga, but for now the three all seem to be butting heads with each other.
Quite understandably, none of them will want to agree to a certain package until they know the deals that that others are getting, and when you couple with that with the fact that senior football figures at the club are still getting their feet under their desks, plus Liverpool's fondness for taking their time and weighing everything up, then here we are.
None of the three are trying to force their way out, but they are aware of what they are worth, Alexander-Arnold perhaps more than most. He wouldn't dare rock the boat at his boyhood club, and so that is why these links with Real Madrid continue to give you the impression that Real are sniffing around the situation and waiting to see what drops from it.
It is likely nothing will, but until there is movement from the club or their three star players then nothing can be ruled out, and while that is the case then anxiety will always remain among those off the pitch, even if it doesn't look there's any among the players on it.
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