Graeme Souness has suggested that Arne Slot may already be planning for life after one long-serving Liverpool stalwart.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is into the final year of his contract at Anfield and has been linked in some quarters with a move to Real Madrid, where his close friend Jude Bellingham already plays.
Speaking on the Up Front podcast, the ex-LFC captain and manager claimed that the recurrence of Conor Bradley coming for the 25-year-old in recent games is an indicator that the head coach is assessing the long-term viability of the Northern Ireland youngster as our first-choice right-back.
Souness said of Trent: “This is just a guess. His mate’s Bellingham. He would be tailor-made for Real Madrid, so he could end up at Real Madrid, and I think that message may have been relayed back to Liverpool.
“He [Slot] has introduced Bradley last week and this week. He’s having a good look at him. That would be that forward planning – ‘Is he good enough? I’m told he’s good enough, I want to see for my own eyes’.
“You can see Trent at Real Madrid. There’s only one club you’d go to. Barcelona can’t afford you. You wouldn’t go to Bayern Munich from Liverpool, I don’t think. The point I’m making is, you’d only leave Liverpool to go to Real Madrid.”
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Anfield chiefs won’t be thanking Souness over his claims that Trent would be ‘tailor-made’ for the Champions League holders, although we can see his point regarding the use of Bradley off the bench with a view to nailing down the right-back berth in the long-term.
Similar to the predicament that Caoimhin Kelleher has faced, the 21-year-old would walk into most Premier League teams but has found himself at Liverpool at the same time as a positional colleague who’s among the world’s best in that role.
It goes without saying that we don’t want the vice-captain to leave Anfield any time soon, but the one crumb of comfort if he were to depart is that there’s another brilliant player already in situ to fill the void.
You can view Souness’ comments below, via @UpFrontPod on X:
"You'd only leave Liverpool for Real Madrid and he's tailor-made for them"
Souness suggests that Arne Slot is planning for life without Alexander-Arnold by subbing him off each week
Search ‘Up Front’ on all your podcast apps or YouTube pic.twitter.com/vH4BeCbHWR
— Up Front (@UpFrontPod) September 7, 2024
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