As Liverpool’s quest for the 2024/25 Premier League trophy trudges deepens into March, the club still lacks clarity about whether its trio of out-of-contract stars—Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah—will be around for the 2025/26 title race.
In a recent Q&A, The Athletic’s David Ornstein teased how the Reds may be internally analyzing the future of the club’s right-back position if Alexander-Arnold is to leave (likely for Real Madrid) this summer.
It’s reported that Conor Bradley is seen as the obvious replacement, and with Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez also able to fill in at right-back, a replacement would not be high on the priority list in the transfer window.
The Alexander-Arnold links to Real Madrid simply won’t go away. Football Insider Fabrizio Romano recently pinned a tweet from April 2024 emphasizing Los Blancos’ interest.
“Real Madrid [is] monitoring Trent Alexander-Arnold’s contract situation at Liverpool,” Romano pinned atop his X with over 23 million followers.
“Current deal expires in June ‘25 with no talks underway as of now. Liverpool have not indicated any desire to sell at this stage. There’s no indication of player’s views so far.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Alexander-Arnold came off injured against PSG in the second leg of the Champions League Round-of-16 on March 11 with an ankle injury. He missed Liverpool’s Carabao Cup final loss to Tottenham Hotspur the following weekend and has found himself unable to suit up for new coach Thomas Tuechel’s first England camp.
With normal deputies Bradley and Gomez hurt, Reds boss Arne Slot opted for Quansah at right-back. The 22-year-old had only previously featured at the position as an injury-time substitute with Liverpool clinging to late leads. Alexander-Arnold isn’t expected to return until early April, while Bradley and Gomez may be out a few further weeks.
Bradley emerged as a future long-term option for the club, typified by his stupendous performance against Real Madrid in a 2-0 way last November.
Gomez, primarily a center back but a swiss-army knife happy to deputize across a back-four, inked a five-year deal with Liverpool back in 2022 to keep him with the club through 2027. He has not started regularly at right-back since he split the duty with Alexander-Arnold during the 2017/18 campaign.
The Reds have been linked to a plethora of new right-back candidates in recent months, including both some more obscure (Wesley, Michael Kayode) and some of the bigger names at the position (Jeremie Frimpong, Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Ola Aina). Ornstein’s reporting seems to indicate Liverpool will opt to move for none of them.
