There has unsurprisingly been widespread reaction to yesterday’s news that Trent Alexander-Arnold looks set to agree a move to Real Madrid in the summer.
Months of speculation appear to be coming to a head, with Liverpool now seemingly resigned to losing their vice-captain on a free transfer later this year, having been unable to convince him to stay despite apparently offering higher wages than Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
The manner of the England international’s impending exit has left many Reds supporters feeling scorned, but one former Premier League striker has called for the 26-year-old’s critics to get off his back.
Agbonlahor: Trent will have no regrets about leaving Liverpool
Speaking with Jeff Stelling on talkSPORT, Gabby Agbonlahor insisted that Trent has every right to make his own decisions and believes he’ll have no regrets about taking his opportunty to join Real Madrid.
The ex-Aston Villa marksman said: “Let Trent decide his own future. Just because he’s born and bred in Liverpool, been there since he was six years old, does it mean that he has to stay there for the rest of his career?
“He’s completed the game there. Let him go to Madrid and do it in a different country, different league; and when he retires, he will look back and say ‘best decision I have made’.
“I’m sure Liverpool fans will forgive him over time. He’ll go down as a Liverpool legend, one of the best full-backs to have played in the Premier League.”
Trent must own his career choices, for better or for worse
Of course Trent is well within his rights to make his own career choices, and it’s natural that the chance to sign for the most successful club in European football (and serial Champions League winners in recent years) would be too good to turn down.
However, what Agbonlahor and others who’ve been critical of Liverpool fans for feeling indignant about the whole saga seem to ignore (or not realise) is that it’s not him leaving per se which hurts, but the manner in which it’s about to happen.
Why wouldn’t Kopites feel angry that such an outstanding player – one who could plausibly have commanded a nine-figure transfer fee – is set to depart for nothing? It also hasn’t helped the 26-year-old’s standing that, unlike Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk, he’s maintained a public silence about his contract situation.
Trent will have to own whatever career choices he makes, and if he believes that going to Real Madrid gives him the best chance of winning consistent silverware and realising his ambition of winning the Ballon d’Or, so be it.
That said, some of the personal abuse directed at him on social media is uncalled for; and whatever else happens, there’s no disputing that he’s been a phenomenal player for Liverpool over the past eight years, evolving from academy graduate to one of the best right-backs in world football.
Whenever he looks back on this part of his life, we hope for his own sake that he won’t have any regrets about the way in which he’s set to leave his boyhood club.
