Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, Liverpool Transfer News & Rumours, Real Madrid
Chris Nee
Topics: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, Liverpool Transfer News & Rumours, Real Madrid
Trent Alexander-Arnold's departure from Liverpool is in fresh doubt.
Liverpool supporters are resigned to losing their right-back, who has been on the books at his boyhood club for more than 20 years, when his contract expires at the end of the season.
The Reds are on the cusp of their second title win of the Premier League era and have announced chunky new deals for both Mo Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk this month.
Alexander-Arnold is expected to leave in the summer, having won everything there is to win with Liverpool and been tempted away by the challenge of playing for Real Madrid.
Advert
But it's been reported that the England star's switch to the Spanish capital is not as inevitable as Liverpool winning the title.
Former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown told Football Insider that the expected sacking of Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti changes the picture.
Ancelotti was instrumental in attracting Alexander-Arnold to the Bernabeu, according to Brown, and Football Insider reports that "the 26-year-old is believed to be asking questions and having second thoughts about the move" as a result.
"The right-back is also under pressure from fans and the club to stay at Anfield."
With no deal agreed, Alexander-Arnold has the luxury of choice. Deciding to join Real Madrid on the basis of the head coach alone comes with obvious risk and Ancelotti is unlikely to have been the only factor in the player's thinking.
A reunion with Jurgen Klopp is just one of the possible outcomes.
"I think there’s a chance he stays at Liverpool," said Brown.
"It’s gone on throughout the season, there’s been so much talk, but it’s not signed yet.
"It looks to me like Madrid are entering a rebuilding phase, and that will cause uncertainty for Trent Alexander-Arnold because he might not fit under a new manager."
Alexander-Arnold has won the Premier League and Champions League in a Liverpool shirt but is thought to be ready to call time on his time in England's top division and prove himself at one of very few clubs that can further test his abilities.
He scored the goal that put Liverpool within one win of the title in Sunday's win at Leicester City, revealing nothing and everything in his post-match interview on the pitch.