“It Hurts” – The Real Reasons why Some Liverpool Fans Booed Trent Alexander-Arnold – Opinion | OneFootball

It hurts. I think that is an appropriate way to summarise where this whole situation comes from – hurt. And it hurts because of how much people care.

Liverpool fans, more than most, are used to acknowledging that there’s a time where club legends leave the club and move onto the next chapters of their careers. That disappointment will always remain and the feelings towards a homegrown player will always be heightened.

With that being said, there’s still a way to go about departing a club, especially your boyhood club and that is where the hurt, and the anger from some, stems from.

Liverpool fans rightly can’t understand Trent Alexander-Arnold’s decision to join Real Madrid. What is better than winning the lot with your club and one day becoming the club captain and breaking all sorts of records along the way? Many will say nothing tops that – that’s where the disappointment comes from.

But players have come and go in the past and Liverpool have always been fine, that’s for sure.

If you were to listen to the mainstream media and most pundits, that’s where this narrative ends. But that’s not quite the full story, is it?

Photo: IMAGO

The situation has been completely mishandled by Trent and his representatives for some time.

The booing at Anfield on Sunday did make me feel uneasy, but we can’t pretend that Liverpool fans are the ones turning on one of their own.

There’s only one person who has turned on their own, regardless of whether you think that it’s right or wrong, and it’s not the supporters.

The media do also seem to forget that Real Madrid are one of Liverpool’s main rivals. Think of the 2018 UEFA Champions League final in Kyiv and the 2022 final in Paris. Think of Sergio Ramos putting Mohamed Salah out of the final. You can even think of Alexander-Arnold’s past meetings against Vinicius Jr. Think of Conor Bradley’s strong tackle on Kylian Mbappe. The rivalry between the two clubs is already full of intensity to begin with.

Perhaps the announcement of his departure should’ve been left until the end of the season. We all knew it was coming, but the announcement has seemingly only further put a target on his back.

But to question the supporters’ commitment to Alexander-Arnold after years of defending him against the rest of the nation, is certainly an interesting stand to make. The same pundits who have slaughtered him for years and labelling him a ‘League Two defender’ now suddenly think he has earned this move to Real Madrid and the Liverpool fans are bang out of order.

Or even the England fans who have jibed him when playing for his country on numerous occasions.

There’s no doubting Alexander-Arnold’s ability and it’s key that there is no revisionism over his contributions over the past few years, as the best right-back in the world.

For now though, it’ll be interesting to see how Arne Slot deals with the situation for the remaining two games of the season. Hopefully, the antics from Sunday can be avoided as Liverpool continue to celebrate the 20th league title but regardless, no one is in a position to tell these fans how to feel and it’s hard to deny that the whole situation has been mismanaged and ignited by one person – Trent Alexander-Arnold.