Is Trent Alexander-Arnold actually making the right call joining Real Madrid? Liverpool are more primed for success than Los Blancos, and homegrown right-back may regret quitting Arne Slot's project

It’s hard to picture Alexander-Arnold’s contract issue as separate to those of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s for a few reasons. Not only did Liverpool threaten to let the loom of their expiries run wild and loose with their season, but the trio have all come through in the same team from 2016 onwards. They are a cerebral part of one of the world’s most cerebral sporting institutions.

What’s different is their age profiles. Salah and Van Dijk, though magnificent this season and still among the game’s best players, will almost certainly start to decline over the course of their new two-year deals. Alexander-Arnold, however, is heading into his prime years and understandably wants freedom over where to spend them.

The love that Salah and Van Dijk clearly have for Liverpool was a driving factor, but knowing they’re still going to be contending for the most major of honours must have been a sweetener too. Arne Slot has already talked up the potential of summer spending and that his project will be easier to sell to targets with the club able to keep their best players as is.

Rival fans are trying to asterisk the hell out of this Premier League title, though that’s an incredibly easy feat when you aren’t a fan of the winning team. Even despite the Reds’ slight drop off through the spring, they’ve shown remarkable progress in a season where they were meant to go backward, so says the footballing script. They have seamlessly transitioned away from the rock-and-roll Jurgen Klopp era into one of more control and flexibility. If this is just the start, players from across the land should be queuing up to join the club.

Madrid are still the envy of the footballing world, but there’s no doubt some shine has come off their sparkling mythos of late. Arsenal were more than deserved 5-1 winners over the two legs of their Champions League quarter-final as they showed off the various chinks in Los Blancos’ armour to the world.

The Gunners must have been shocked at how little they had to work to keep the reigning European champions at bay. Any semblance of a system quickly dissipated and resembled a gathering of mercenaries. All of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo were blunted.

Thibaut Courtois perhaps said it best - Madrid missed a Joselu, a focal point in attack. That’s what the Madrid of old could always turn to, be that with the veteran Spanish striker, Karim Benzema or Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet there does not seem to be much appetite to bring in another forward of that ilk.

Beyond Alexander-Arnold, Madrid are said to be looking at centre-backs, with William Saliba, Jonathan Tah and Dean Huijsen among the names linked with a move. That’s fine, they do need reinforcements at the back, but they’ll still run into the same problems up front.

You only need to hear the testimonies of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho to understand just how needlessly brutal the Spanish press are. What happens in England pales in comparison to the Iberian media machine.

"We cannot compare the pressure we have in England to Spain, in my experience. It's a thousand times tougher there," Guardiola attested. Mourinho, meanwhile, was far more explanatory: "If you want to compare the Italian to the Spanish or the Portuguese, then you can, but in England it is a whole different approach. For example, Portugal is a country with 10 million inhabitants and, like Italy, it has three daily newspapers dedicated solely to sport. In England there are no sports papers, just two pages in each newspaper every day and on Monday a supplement of six or seven pages. There is Sky Sports who talk about football a bit every day, but nothing more than that. After matches there is a flash interview lasting one minute and then a press conference for five minutes. You cannot compare the experiences, it is impossible. The English press is fantastic."

The drive to get Alexander-Arnold to Madrid has been clear and calculated, but you only need to ask any Galactico past or present and they’ll tell you how swiftly you can sink from hero to zero.

At his best, Alexander-Arnold is one of the most elegantly unique footballers to have ever stepped on a pitch. There’s never been a full-back who’s acted as a playmaker the way he does. That’s what makes him such an attractive package to Madrid, though his weaknesses are what will drive them crazy.

Where Alexander-Arnold was once a slightly above-average defender, his work ethic off the ball leaves much to be desired despite his physical growth and general standing. A performance like his away at Manchester City in February, during which he broke the unwanted record of most times someone had been dribbled past in a Premier League game, won’t fly under the radar as easily in Spain.

There’s an extra wrinkle to Alexander-Arnold’s proposed move which has snuck past everyone’s attention - it has been reported more than once he would not immediately come in and be first-choice over Dani Carvajal. What’s more, he wouldn’t even be among Madrid's highest earners or pocket a wage of more significance to that at Anfield.

Madrid seem to be riding on their laurels of ‘we’re Real Madrid Club de Futbol’ a bit much. If it really is Alexander-Arnold’s dream to go to the Bernabeu and wear that iconic kit and represent that club, then fair enough, you do you. If there’s any other reason behind wanting such a move, it’s worth at least considering otherwise, even this late into the saga.

Alexander-Arnold is already a king at Liverpool, borderline the face of the club - he already is among the local fanbase anyway. At Madrid, would he even be on the posters? It’s worth a thought, especially given there’s not a lot between the size of the clubs either.

It isn't too late for Alexander-Arnold to back out and then move to Madrid later in his career. He only needs to look at the example of Mbappe of all people, after all.

Rewind to 2022. Mbappe was on an expiring contract at Paris Saint-Germain, who had brought in literally Lionel Messi as a new marquee forward. The Frenchman was, though, at the peak of his powers, and a long-awaited move to the Bernabeu felt all but certain to happen at the end of that season.

But then it didn't. Mbappe had a change of heart. At almost the very last, he signed a new three-year contract (which turned out to be a two-year contract plus a further 12 months at his discretion, but the point remains the same). Madrid were furious. That famous PR machine in the Spanish media went into overdrive. There were even rumblings this had peeved off the club so much that they would never consider signing Mbappe again.

Time is a great heeler, as it turns out. Madrid's favourite son at the moment is not Mbappe, but at least he's there and can right the wrongs of his stay so far.

The reaction to Mbappe remaining in Paris would be surpassed by that on Merseyside should Alexander-Arnold decide to follow suit. If there is any part of the right-back that is telling him to go to Madrid for his ego, then pulling the plug on the move now could feed that to end any hunger.

There's still more to be won at Liverpool. This doesn't have to be the end of the big red book, rather the beginning of a new fantasy under Slot. Does he really think this is best for him footballing and legacy wise? Let's not even get started on that Ballon d'Or dream today, that's for another time.

Alexander-Arnold will go down as an all-time great of Liverpool's regardless of what happens, but only staying at Anfield will elevate him into the upper pantheon. Mugging off Madrid in the process like this would be an unprecedented achievement by Scousers' standards.