Well, I guess it’s my turn to address the elephant in the room.
It feels like every man and their dog has had their say on the reaction to Trent Alexander-Arnold at Anfield yesterday – more specifically, the booing he received from Liverpool fans.
Before we go any further, just some background on myself – yes, I am a Liverpool fan, despite what one particularly overzealous Twitter/X users would have you believe. No, I wasn’t at Anfield on Sunday, and in truth, there a lot of supporters who would perhaps label me as not being a ‘proper’ fan. I don’t get to many games for a multitude of reasons, and instead, I watch them all on TV.
But, if Rio Ferdinand – a man who grew up in London, played for Leeds United before moving to its arch rival, and now regularly turns TNT Sports coverage into the most unbearable of Manchester United fan channels – can have his say, then why can’t I?
So, here’s my take – if I had been at Anfield, I would have booed Alexander-Arnold. Once.
I don’t see the problem in fans getting their point across when he came onto the pitch. They’ve paid for their ticket, a lot of them will have supported the club for a lot longer than Alexander-Arnold, and if they feel strongly enough to boo him for leaving the club this summer, then they should feel free to do that without having rivals – most of whom have not experienced a similar situation with any of their own players – telling them how they should be reacting.
Personally, I feel let down by Alexander-Arnold. This is a player who came through the academy and spoke about his dream of captaining Liverpool, and now, with the club stronger than it has been for the majority of my life, or his life for that matter, he’s decided he’d rather go elsewhere.
Unlike Steve McManaman and Michael Owen, he would have been almost guaranteed to win more big trophies had he chosen to stay at Anfield. What’s more, he would have been lifting a lot of those himself with the captain’s armband on, an honor reserved for only a few special players.
As Jamie Carragher eluded to last week, it is somewhat confusing how a Liverpool fan could seemingly decide that’s now not enough for them. People trot out the old argument that you shouldn’t boo anyone wearing the red shirt – well, Alexander-Arnold has already decided he doesn’t want to anymore.
But even that is not the basis of my frustration with him. The way he has handled this whole situation has been shoddy at best.
Refusing to do interviews while Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah aren’t shying away from them, despite being in the same situation with their contracts. And then, when he does speak to the media, he speaks about wanting to win the Ballon d’Or rather than any other trophy. It doesn’t give the air of a team player, does it?
Of course, coming out and saying he wanted to move to Madrid from an early stage wouldn’t have been a great idea either, but there are ways to drop hints without just deciding to go silent, all while getting fans’ hopes up with cryptic messages at West Ham and Leicester. It just feels like we’ve been taken for a ride throughout this whole saga, and as a fan, I feel angry.
Call it over-dramatic if you want, but that comes with the territory of being a supporter. And in any case, I don’t completely agree with the reaction he got on Sunday.
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Yes, I would have booed as he made his way off the bench. I might have even joined in with the Steven Gerrard and Conor Bradley songs, although I’m not much of a singer. But that’s where I would have stopped.
Going on to then boo Alexander-Arnold’s every touch of the ball felt like it was going against what these last few games should be about. Liverpool is the Premier League champion, and it should be a party atmosphere, especially at Anfield.
Instead, the remainder of the game against Arsenal just felt odd. Five years ago, no one could be at the ground to celebrate the title, and now that the opportunity has presented itself, there’s this subplot that is threatening to take the gloss off the forthcoming celebrations.
Arne Slot should never have brought Alexander-Arnold on in the first place, but it seems he won’t be deterred from doing so again. If so, then by all means, feel free to make your point as he comes onto the pitch.
From there on in though, the team comes first. Celebrate their achievement, and enjoy these moments, not letting the one person who has decided that’s not enough to spoil that.
Liverpool is bigger than any one player, and always will be.
