Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville engaged in a heated debate regarding the future of Liverpool’s vice-captain, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It appears that Alexander-Arnold will depart from his childhood team at the end of his contract this season, with Real Madrid seemingly on the cusp of securing his signature without a fee. Online backlash has mounted against Alexander-Arnold following reports that he has chosen to walk away from Liverpool.
Neville laid blame on the shoulders of Reds’ proprietors Fenway Sports Group for finding themselves in a predicament where key players like Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil van Dijk have entered the final year of their deals.
However, Carragher contested Neville’s assumptions, insisting that when a player is determined to leave on a free transfer, there’s not much that can be done to prevent it.
In a moment captured during their discussion on the Stick to Football podcast by Sky Bet, Arsenal icon Ian Wright probed the Liverpool stalwart, asking, “Jamie, what about FSG? Anything to do with FSG and the fact that they let it get to a place like this?” to which Neville interjected assertively: ‘Absolutely!”
Here is the full debate shared between the pair as they sparred over Alexander-Arnold’s predicament.
Carragher: “No, please, no, no, no. I’ve explained this. I’ve explained this. Stop it. I’ve explained this a million times. I’ve explained this a million times.”
Neville: “Liverpool is the only club who are allowed to run its players contract down to zero, but are still doing okay? Three, but he’s explained it so we’re all right from Liverpool because he’s explained it.
“Three of the best players in the world have got contracts running out, but Liverpool is doing a great job managing that? I’m sorry, I can’t accept that.”
Carragher: “Okay, so let’s explain it. In a normal circumstance, yes, I get it. The hierarchy at Liverpool who were a bit part of Jurgen Klopp being really successful, Jurgen Klopp won more stuff, got more power, those people moved away. The last summer of Jurgen Klopp, do you know who Liverpool’s sporting director was?”.
Neville: “I don’t have a clue.”
Carragher: “So when you’re doing all this for the cameras and you go viral, you actually haven’t got a clue. It was Jurgen Klopp’s mate. There was a vacuum. You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. There was a vacuum.”
Neville: “Woah, woah, woah, hang on a minute.”
Carragher: “No, no, no, listen. You’ve done your face and that will make it go out and make it go big.”
Neville: “Well done FSG! Good job.”
(Image: Stick to Football)
Carragher: “So basically Jurgen Klopp has got that much power. Everybody has left. Michael Edwards, not just Michael Edwards, everybody has left. The guy who comes after him, who was Michael Edwards’ number two, was in the job for six months and walked away.
“So what is that telling you what is going on at the top end of the club? That basically there is a vacuum there. They needed to bring in a guy from Germany who did the job in Germany for a lot of – what are you shaking your head at? – middle range clubs.
“Klopp’s agent knew him. He’s out of work, he basically came in for the summer for Liverpool to sign the players that they signed. And don’t forget Klopp then, a few months later, announces he’s leaving.
“So the players, the older players Van Dijk and Salah probably would have been left because they’re getting older anyway. But the Trent situation, he has definitely, as we all would, used that situation to his own advantage.
“‘How can I sign? I don’t know what the new manager is like, how successful we’ll be in the future’. I get that. When we’re talking about the actual club, Michael Edwards, Richard Hughes and the people in there now, they’ve been left that. Do you understand that?”.
Neville: “I’m not having a go at the current people who are there now, I’m having a go at the club over the last three years, not seeing three of the best players in Europe and in the world being signed up.
“You could’ve been the tea lady, the kit man at Liverpool that made the decision to keep those three players and give them a new contract. You didn’t have to be the sporting director.”
Carragher: “So what I’m saying is when you’ve got players who are 33, 34, did the club approach us with two years left? No, they didn’t, we all know they didn’t. So Trent Alexander-Arnold will have been discussed.
“There’s no way FSG said with 12 months remaining, ‘Shall we go?’ He’s leveraged the situation to his benefit and said, ‘I’m not signing, I don’t know how successful the club’s going to be, who’s the new manager going to be, and he’s used that to his advantage. And now Liverpool find themselves in this predicament.”
Neville: “Carra, you’ve been a young player at a club who has come through the ranks, you’re also not usually treated as well as you should be on contracts. To be fair, there is probably a lot of that happening with Trent..
“I reckon a couple of years ago, probably around the time Van Dijk was going through that phase when he looked like he might be just wobbling a bit. They’ve looked at them and thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll wait with you’.
“And the players are probably holding that against them a little bit now and thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, when you could have approached me 18 months ago…'”.
“I think with Trent, it’s unforgivable. Let’s be clear, whether you’re going through a turbulent time in the boardroom or not, if you’re the owner of the club and you look at Trent two years ago, even if you’ve got disruption in your sporting department, you’re looking at it and thinking, ‘we’ve got to sign him up! He’s one of our own!'”.
Carragher: “People say you can’t let him go on a free. If a player wants to leave on a free transfer, nobody can stop them. You can’t! This thing, ‘If he doesn’t sign, sell him!'”.
“Were Liverpool really going to sell Trent Alexander-Arnold last summer, just sell him? Real Madrid might not have even wanted him if it was going to cost them $60M or $70M
“And a new manager’s going to come in and he’s got to fill that right-back position. There was no way in the world Liverpool were going to say last summer, ‘If you don’t sign, we’re selling!'”.
(Image: Getty Images)
The pair then angrily clashed again later in the episode when debating how valued Alexander-Arnold was by Liverpool supporters in comparison to former academy graduates, like Carragher.
Neville: “I think Liverpool fans maybe are a little bit quicker on him than they would be on someone like say Carra or Stevie Gerrard or one of the other lads?”.
Carragher: “Why? You think the crowd are quicker on Trent than they were on me? You are joking!”.
Neville: “Carra, my point is there is a greater love towards you, Stevie, Robbie Fowler, than there is to him. You know this by the way, are you denying this? You don’t think? Michael Owen is in the same sphere as Trent, those two players don’t get the same level of love from Liverpool fans.”
Carragher: “What are you talking about? Where are you getting this from? He’s got a big mural outside of Anfield!”
Neville: “Oh, you’ve all got f—— murals! F—— hell, if you haven’t got a mural in Liverpool, you’re f—— doing something wrong, Jesus Christ! Honestly!”.
Carragher: “The song for him, ‘The Scouser in our team’, I had to get to 27 before I got a song. You’re talking about something you don’t know about.”
Neville: “I think you’re being ignorant here now. If I put up a poll tomorrow of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Michael Owen, you, Stevie, Robbie Fowler, I know who would come in the bottom two. It would be Trent Alexander-Arnold and Michael Owen.”
Carragher: “Explain to me where you’re getting this from because you don’t live in Liverpool, you don’t know Liverpool. I think you’re wrong.”
Neville: “Let’s do a poll! Who do Liverpool fans love the most? Carragher, Owen, Gerrard, let’s do a poll!”
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Carragher: “Do the poll before the Real Madrid stuff started. Let’s do that poll before the Real Madrid stuff started. He’s been playing for Liverpool for eight years. Honestly, honestly.”
Neville: “They were at him in January against United! I’m not saying they don’t like him, I’m saying there is a little bit less love than there is for you. I’m not saying they don’t like him. You’re misreading this.”
Carragher: “I can assure you that the love for Trent Alexander-Arnold as a player for Liverpool from the age of 18 and 26 was 10 times what it was for me from my age of 18 to 26. I can absolutely assure you of that one. Jesus.”
Neville: “Okay. We all dream of a team of Carraghers.”
Carragher: “Yeah, I got that when I was 28, we’d just won the European Cup. Jesus. That’s what it took for me. F—— hell, honest to God. F—— hell. Most hated man in Liverpool knows everything about Liverpool.”
Neville: “I don’t think I’m wrong in anything that I’ve just said in the last hour.”
