Trent Alexander-Arnold: Should He Stay or Should He Go?
The 2024/25 season has thus far been an amazing one for Liverpool. However, with a couple of their core players having contracts expiring in June 2025, it hasn’t been a season without its rumours and distractions. At the forefront of those rumours has been Trent Alexander-Arnold, amidst reported interest from the reigning Spanish and European champions Real Madrid.
Understandably, this has caused upset amongst the Liverpool fan base online. With a little over 330 appearances for the club, Trent has pretty much been a mainstay in the side since he made his debut in the 2016/17 season. The best ability is availability and Trent has well and truly been available for Liverpool.
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He’s only only dipped below 40 appearances a season twice since his first full campaign with the Reds, those two seasons being his debut full season in 2017/18 and last season, 2023/24, after suffering from both hamstring and knee injuries, which kept him out of action for a total of 24 games. Yet despite all that it’s been Trent’s unique profile that has made him so important to Liverpool, he has the vision, accompanied by the range of pass that you’d expect to see from the best number 10s in world football, not a right back.
These qualities have meant Liverpool have always had more in their attacking arsenal than most other teams, which has been proven time and time again as Trent has notched 20 goals for the club and even more impressively 85 assists, with 3 Premier League campaigns with double-digit assist in; 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2021/22.
However, there are many reasons in which this move would make plenty of sense from Trent’s point of view. The first of those being that he has achieved everything he could have at Liverpool winning; 1x Premier League, 1x FA Cup, 2x EFL Cup, 1x UEFA Champions League, 1x UEFA Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup.
All these trophies come along with a plethora of personal accolades including; 3 entries into the PFA Team Of The Year (2018/19, 2019/20 and 2021/22), being the PFA Young Player Of The Year (2019/20) and being the Premier League Player Of The Month on two occasions.
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Trent also became the youngest player to ever captain Liverpool in December 2020 against Midtjylland in the UEFA Champions League and whilst he may not have become the official Liverpool captain, he has achieved what would’ve been a lifelong dream of captaining his boyhood club in a match.
This hasn’t been his only memorable moment in the Champions League for the club either as that goes to the infamous corner alongside Divock Origi to complete the comeback of all comebacks when Liverpool came from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona in May of 2020.
My final point for fans to consider amongst this whirlwind is that at Trent’s age (26), there is a good chance that a new deal could be his last big contract before he turns 30, with it being known in the footballing world that a players’ chance at the same contract they’d get between 24 and 26, in their 30’s, is slim.
If Liverpool cannot agree a deal with him and his camp, where the opportunity arises the temptation of playing for the biggest club on the planet, Real Madrid, very rarely escapes any footballer. In a much brighter light for Liverpool, the club will find themselves as well equipped as they could be to find a replacement should Trent leave, with young Conor Bradley waiting in the wings.
Bradley, 21, has filled in for Trent on many occasions, especially during Trent’s injury-plagued season of 2023/24, where he played 1,505 minutes for Liverpool across 23 appearances. During these appearances, Bradley more than showed his worth defensively with 3.7 tackles + interceptions per 90 and some exceptional defensive displays, namely at home to Brighton in March 2024 where he locked up his left flank with 3 interceptions and 6 tackles whilst winning all 16 ground duels he was involved in.
Still, it’s Trent’s attacking prowess that makes him so unique, how do they replace that? Well, in those 23 appearances last season Bradley bagged himself 1 goal and 6 assists, his goal (along with 1 of his assists) came in a standout performance at home against Chelsea where Liverpool won 4-1, with a huge thanks to the Northern Ireland international being the best player on the pitch.
All in all, there is no doubt that Trent will be a huge loss for Liverpool should he leave but I do believe they have a ready-made replacement for him that will cost them nothing, meaning they will also then be able to focus their funds on players in other areas of the pitch should they so desire, a win for everybody.
By: Jack Roberts / @jackroberts_12
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Quality Sport Images – Getty Images / John Berry / Getty Images