“Don’t Think The Club Could Have Done Much More” – Paul Gorst On TAA Free Transfer Exit | OneFootball

By James Cranford

Liverpool found themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week, as reports emerged suggesting vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold is on the verge of agreeing a free transfer to Real Madrid.

The story has dominated the news cycle after an uneventful international week, with fans and pundits alike desperate to have their say on what looks set to be one of the most high-profile moves of the summer.

Much of the furore stemmed from an article published on Tuesday morning by talkSPORT’s Alex Crook and Phil Spencer stating that Trent has agreed a five-year deal worth around £220,000 per week with the Spanish giants.

Despite the lack of any official confirmation, it is widely expected that the 26-year-old will end his two-decade association with LFC when his contract expires in June. With the futures of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk also yet to be finalised, there is a chance that Arne Slot may find himself going into next season fielding a significantly different starting XI than the one that has taken him to the verge of the Premier League title.

On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst for his take on Trent.

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Paul said:

“I think people are starting to accept the fact now that his final weeks at Liverpool are here and now, and he will be moving on a free transfer.

“It’s going to be sad to see a born and bred scouser leave the club, especially someone who’s so good.

“I don’t want to give too much credence to a lot of the stuff that’s on social media, a lot of it is fair and reasoned and balanced and critical, but a lot of it is just over the top for the sake of it – the rat emojis and all that.

“There are legitimate reasons to be critical of the decision, to question why he feels he can’t achieve his dreams at Liverpool, but on the flip side, this is a player who at the age of 26 has won everything there is to win at Liverpool.

“For years he’s talked up the fact that he wants to be Liverpool captain and that has been his overriding objective, and he’s probably within three or four years of it coming to fruition, but he feels the lure of Madrid is too much.

“I don’t think the club could have done a whole lot to have stopped him. The fact that they’ve done it with Kylian Mbappe, they will feel emboldened to do it with anyone really.

“They’ve done it with David Alaba, they’ve done it with Antonio Rudiger, Real Madrid tends to get the players they want, don’t they?

“They got Luís Figo from Barcelona and Zinedine Zidane when he was at the peak of his powers at Juventus, and Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká. They get who they want. Why wouldn’t Liverpool supporters feel as though it would have been any different?”

Redmen Reacts

As Paul points out, despite the huge interest and reaction to the Trent rumours, the story has not progressed in any way that could considered concrete. However, the silence from both the vice-captain and Liverpool’s camps remains deafening, and all signs point towards an inevitable departure. The player has been presented with an exploitable situation by his club’s inaction over the past two to three years and should not be castigated for making a decision in his own best interest.

Despite this fact, the situation is deeply disappointing and tough to take for Reds around the world, and it is only natural that some criticism will come his way given his previous assertions that he would love to captain his boyhood club. His revelation earlier this season that he aims to become the first right-back to win the Ballon D’or has been taken as a signpost of his intentions – it is ironic that he probably stands more chance of achieving that aim were he to stay and win several major trophies as Liverpool captain, as opposed to becoming another cog in a star-studded Real Madrid team. If he is to leave for free – especially given FSG’s tight financial controls – any anger should be directed towards the club hierarchy, rather than the player himself. Even given the upheaval with sporting directors over the past three seasons, it should have been obvious to those in charge that the current state of affairs was always a likely outcome.