Michael Owen believes Trent Alexander-Arnold will have been left “mortified” by the boos he was on the end of from Liverpool‘s supporters at Anfield on Sunday. Alexander-Arnold started the game against Arsenal on the bench but was brought on in the second half and received a hostile reception from thousands of supporters.
There were also chants of “there’s only one Conor Bradley” as well as a chant about former skipper Steven Gerrard, who famously stayed at Liverpool throughout his top-level career amid interest from higher-performing clubs.
The right-back announced a week ago that he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, with Real Madrid clearly his next destination.
The main bone of contention that supporters have with Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool is that he is doing so for free, having allowed his contract to run down. That means that the club will not receive a fee for a player who has market value of $85 million.
Owen found himself in a similar situation 21 years ago, when he left Liverpool to join Real Madrid in 2004, but unlike Alexander-Arnold, his departure was not known until the off-season, meaning Liverpool’s supporters did not get the chance to make their feelings known on the matter before Owen left.
However, when Owen returned to Anfield as a Newcastle player later on in his career, he was booed, and that left him and his family devastated.
“For his own people to boo him, it’s a big lump in your throat,” Owen said on Premier League Productions. “I remember sitting in the players’ lounge after playing against Liverpool for Newcastle.
“Parents, myself, all in floods of tears because I’d just been booed by my own people.
(Image: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
“And I struggle to comprehend it nowadays and I’m probably the closest person on the planet who knows what it feels like to be in Trent’s shoes. He’ll be mortified.”
He added: “Trent will leave now, it’s his second to last game, maybe his last game, there were people that booed him and you can’t get that out of your head. Despite what’s happened for the last 20 years of his life of pure adulation.
“The one thing I remember now is I forget a lot but think they booed me at the end and it just makes you feel absolutely sick for what you did for the club.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said of the boos: “For the fans, they can always have the reaction they want but I will always back the players I lead and the ones that wear the red shirt. I will back them no matter what.
“First of all, they sang for Steven Gerrard which is a nice thing to do and then for Conor Bradley but when Trent took a free-kick, more people were positive about him and hoping that he would score than people booing him.
“It would not be fair to focus only on the Liverpool fans that booed. If they want to, it’s fine but there were a lot of people that were really positive about him as well.”
