Trent Alexander-Arnold has dominated the headlines this week as more and more reports have emerged about the Liverpool right-back.
Alexander-Arnold is Real Madrid bound, or at least that’s what has been reported this week.
Indeed, many stories have emerged claiming that this deal is done and that Alexander-Arnold will be headed to Real Madrid in the summer and leaving Liverpool on a free transfer.
However, according to James Pearce, speaking on The Kop Council, people close to Alexander-Arnold are telling a different story.
Indeed, according to the journalist, people close to Alexander-Arnold insist that no deal is done here, although people in Spain are still confident about this move happening.
Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid is not done
Pearce shared what he knows about the England international and his potential move to Madrid.
The journalist says he’s seen these reports that this is a done deal, but they are premature as people close to Alexander-Arnold continue to insist that this deal is not finalised yet.
“There have been reports that it’s a done deal, everything is signed and sealed, but if that is the case then Liverpool don’t know about it. They certainly haven’t been told by Real Madrid, because the way these things work is that when there’s a formal agreement that’s been signed, Real Madrid have to let Liverpool know,” Pearce said.
“You know, people close to Trent insist that it’s not done, but of course, you speak to people in Spain and there’s a huge confidence that they will compete the signing of Trent Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer.”
“It feels like a weird situation. People are speaking like he’s gone, and it’s done, but if you speak to people at Liverpool, they will say nothing has changed this week – ‘we haven’t been informed by Real Madrid that anything is done, we haven’t been informed by Trent that he’s leaving’ and people close to Trent are saying similar, nothing has been sorted.”
Liverpool transfers that collapsed late on
As Pearce says, there’s still confidence that Alexander-Arnold will join Real Madrid, but we have seen some high-profile transfers get to these final stages only for a dramatic U-turn to happen late on.
Steven Gerrard was so close to joining Chelsea in 2005, before a last-minute change of heart.
Gerrard spoke about how close he was to joining Chelsea, via The Athletic.
“I was so close to leaving but that hour with my dad and Paul changed everything… ‘What’s best for you? What do you want? Can you handle the Kop turning against you? Can you accept the fact that you’ll never play for Liverpool again?’. These were the kind of questions — none of them to do with money — that we picked apart inside the four walls of my dad’s front room,” Gerrard said.
“We all knew I would make millions more if I went to Chelsea but the money was irrelevant. Would it mean more to me to win two or three trophies with Liverpool than double or even triple that number with Chelsea? I was far from convinced about Chelsea. I was thinking only of Liverpool.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool have been in this exact situation recently when they were the buying club.
Martin Zubimendi looked set for Liverpool in the summer, but he decided to stay loyal to Real Sociedad at the last minute.
Liverpool know only too well that these things can change in an instant, and while Alexander-Arnold is likely to leave it would seem, until a contract is signed, there’s still that small chance he could change his mind and stay.
