Trent Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool fans: A sensible conversation about booing

Liverpool’s game against Arsenal on Sunday should have been a party — glorious weather, no pressure and a full house at Anfield to salute the new Premier League champions.

Instead, the mood was soured by a hostile reception for Trent Alexander-Arnold in his first match since he confirmed he was leaving the club at the end of the season on a free transfer.

There has been a vociferous debate ever since about the rights and wrongs of the reaction. In an effort to cut through the noise, we are offering edited versions of that debate — first, as it played out on our dedicated Liverpool podcast Walk On between Liverpool writers James Pearce and Simon Hughes, and host Tony Evans; and also in the comments section of James’ article on Anfield’s reaction to Alexander-Arnold, published on Monday.

Tony Evans: Did you see it coming, James? When did you realise it was happening?

James Pearce: No, I definitely can’t claim that I foresaw that, which is one of the reasons why I don’t go along with this idea that Arne Slot made a really bad mistake by bringing him on. Call me naive, but I genuinely did not think that the reaction would be anywhere near as bad as that. Of course, it wasn’t everyone, but it was a significant minority. And I was really, really shocked. Certainly in my time going to Anfield, that was unprecedented in terms of the level of it.

Simon Hughes: I actually thought that the jeering at Leicester a few weeks ago was less understandable than what happened at Anfield on Sunday, mainly because Liverpool hadn’t won the title at that point. Winning the league, I don’t think, is going to necessarily make people feel better about the situation. It actually could make people even more upset, more worried about what the future might look like.

Because the bottom line is Liverpool are losing a top-quality player, a local player, who everybody thought was going to become the club captain, and he’s going for nothing. If rival fans and journalists expect fans who are very passionate about their club to be happy about that, I think they’re the ones who are misunderstanding the situation entirely.

Personally, it made me feel uncomfortable, but Liverpool and Anfield isn’t a place that makes people feel comfortable. And the other thing is it’s more than likely he’s going to return in a Real Madrid shirt in the next couple of years. It’d be very surprising if the teams aren’t playing against each other at some point. How does everybody expect the crowd to react to him then? Cheer him on in a Real Madrid shirt? Say nothing to him?

Pearce: I don’t think anyone could seriously criticise fans booing him if he came back with Madrid next season, but do you not think it’s different when he’s still wearing a Liverpool shirt?

Hughes: I think it’s going to happen anyway. He’s decided to go and play for another club. And when he returns to Anfield, people are going to quite rightly want to put him off his game because he’s a player that could hurt Liverpool. The situation has just been brought forward a little bit. Personally, I wouldn’t have booed but I can understand why other people might feel slightly differently and want to be more audible with their frustrations than I do.

Evans: Many of the pundits are ex-players who understand that, when you’re professional, you’ve got to park your fandom and they can see themselves in the same situation. So they’re obviously going to be appalled with it. But fans of other clubs who are desperate to have a stick to beat Liverpool — you know, Trent’s walking alone, all that sort of stuff. Behave yourself! We know that ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ is no deeper than a cliche, really. The fact is you choose to leave any club and you’re dead to the fan base. That’s the way football works. That’s a way fandom works. So stop with the sanctimony, people.

Hughes: People will say it’s an emotional reaction and in some respects it is but, speaking to some Liverpool supporters, I also think there’s a sense among some fans that they almost need to protect the club a little bit here and show players that when they make a decision that involves leaving their club you do potentially stand to lose something.

Alexander-Arnold’s relationship with Liverpool fans will never the be the same again (Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images)

I think what people find quite hard is, for the last 10 years, everything at Liverpool has been pretty smooth. There hasn’t been too many moments where the club has looked like anything but a destination. But having your local player, who was meant to be the club captain, leaving creates a danger of  other players thinking: ‘Well, I quite fancy going to Real Madrid.’ I’m sure pretty much every player in the Liverpool dressing room already thought that already. But I think it’s very useful actually for these players to know you do actually stand to lose something if you leave Liverpool, and that there is going to be some sort of consequence for that decision.

Evans: At the end, Trent going to the crowd — that’s a fair amount of cojones he’s got, there.

Hughes: Yeah. I’ve said, all along, Liverpool are losing a fantastic player for nothing. Now, I don’t think Trent Alexander-Arnold owes Liverpool a penny; I just disagree fundamentally with the decision. When you’re from Liverpool and you’ve played for Liverpool all your life, it’s a civic duty. That’s my interpretation of your role as a Liverpool player and to walk away and put the team and the club in a potentially worse position is something I find quite hard to accept. But, you know, I’m not a footballer!

Pearce: I almost wonder whether he would have been better off just leaving the announcement until the day after the parade. I know the accusations then would have been that would have been cowardly not to front up before then. But there’s no doubt that (by doing it now) it’s created a sideshow during the celebrations, and I think it’s sad that a Liverpool career that’s lasted over 350 games, and he’s won absolutely everything, should end like this.

Arne Slot had to field questions over Alexander-Arnold after the Arsenal game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Evans: Can you brush him out of the history?

Pearce: No, that would be ridiculous. I’ve had people say to me, he shouldn’t be anywhere near Anfield for the last day against Palace, shouldn’t be involved in the trophy lift, shouldn’t be part of the parade. I do not understand that logic. He’s played 43 times for Liverpool this season and been a big part of the title triumph. He deserves to be part of the celebrations.

And I think where Slot does have a big decision to make is whether he features in the last two games. I know he’s indicated that he will continue to play him but it is tricky. Even if you have him in the squad and then maybe don’t bring him on, there’s going to be a moment in the celebrations where each of the players has got the trophy and goes to the Kop with it. What happens then? Does Trent just not have that moment because of the fear of what the reaction is going to be? I wonder whether people will feel like they’ve said their piece after Sunday, and we won’t see those same scenes repeated against Palace. I hope that’s the case.

A selection of reader responses

It’s sad when grown adults act like petulant children — abusing some kid in his mid-20s trying to just challenge himself with new experiences. Their behaviour is a disgrace to Liverpool’s proud culture and made a mockery of its ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ ethos.

Trent wasn’t wearing an opposition’s kit. He was wearing the same red kit he achieved numerous successes in the past several years that gave those same supporters a sense of pride and joy, including this season, which they still have yet to officially celebrate.

The grown adults booing Trent outed themselves as performative supporters where tribal allegiance is more important to them than family. They’re embarrassing.

Phil G

You’ll Never Walk Alone underpins Liverpool’s ethos but does it always hold true? (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Very confused people here think that there is some contradiction between YNWA etc, and the boos that Trent got from some fans. They’re two sides of the same coin.

Liverpool as a club and fanbase have a stronger sense of community than most clubs, for many reasons — the city’s history, the experience of Hillsborough, legendary managers in (Bill) Shankly and (Jurgen) Klopp who purposefully built community between team and fans, the habit unlike some big clubs of not changing manager and line-up every five minutes.

The positive side of that community was on show when we sealed the title against Spurs. The negative side was on show when Trent was booed. I wouldn’t have booed Trent on Saturday but I get why some did, and I certainly would boo him in a Real shirt next season.

If Trent’s smart enough, he’ll figure out that the reaction is testament to how much the fans loved him.

Battles A.

As a Newcastle fan, if we had a local player comparable to Trent who wound his contract down in order to to get a bigger signing-on fee from a rival than if they paid a fee, I would be absolutely livid.

I don’t think the booing is over the top at all, and can’t understand all this pearl-clutching about it. Harry Kane was a boyhood Arsenal fan who was single-handedly elevating that Tottenham side while being personally held back by them, and even he did better by Spurs.

Harvey J.

It vindicates TAA’s decision to delay his announcement. Can you imagine if this was mid-season? The fans’ reaction itself would have derailed our season.

I’m not one of those TAA fan boys. He’s no doubt immensely talented but I will be the first to question his leadership and defensive qualities. That said, I think he has done nothing wrong here.

Employment is always conditional and transactional. Had TAA suffered a bad injury, he’s going to be dropped and eventually cut. Steven Gerrard wasn’t offered a contract when he wanted an extension towards the end of his career. Legend or not, business is business, and people need to grow up to acknowledge realities.

TAA fulfilled his contract, he trained, he didn’t go on strike, he remained professional, so on what ground should he be booed? What message are we sending to future local stars?

Gerald G.

I didn’t boo. However, I totally understand those that did. You’re not “one of ours” if you go on and on about your dream to captain ‘your’ club, receive the adoration of that club’s fans for years, shush your club’s fans when your intention to bail on your hometown club is (correctly) reported on by the press, reject an overly generous contract offer to renew your contract and then choose to sign for a club (for free) that you have stated are a direct rival.

People are emotional. He knew what the response would be. It’s priced into his signing-on fee. It’s all desperately sad, but all a result of his choices. He was great for us, but now he’s one of them. I don’t want ‘them’ to win a game of tiddlywinks.

David F.

The Alexander-Arnold mural outside Anfield (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Liverpool fans are getting held to a standard no other club has to meet due to a song that we are not unique in singing. Would Celtic or Dortmund have this many paragraphs dedicated to covering an incident like this?

There is no point in acting like Liverpool fans should be above the traps of tribalism and self-aggrandisement that all football fans fall into. I’d even argue they are even more prey to them given the way the establishment has treated the city since the 1980s.

When it comes to Trent, I totally understand the man and football player who wants to have a new challenge, play for European royalty and look to write his name in the history books outside England.

What I don’t understand is how Trent, the boyhood Liverpool fan, wants to play for a team that we have and will compete with for glory on the European stage, denies his club the opportunity to recoup his worth to further our ambition and thinks more of his ‘personal brand’ than the team.

Sam F.

We tend to forget that players have become economic entities. Not just in the traditional sense of labour, as people earning wages, but as brands or companies.

That’s where Real Madrid comes in. It is the club to elevate a brand. And that, if we’re being honest, is a major factor behind TAA’s decision to leave Liverpool. He’s aiming for global reach — the kind of platform that allows a personal brand to expand far beyond the pitch.

But this comes at a cost. When you aim for the world, you often leave your roots behind. And in doing so, you alienate the very people who were part of your journey. And that hurts. Seen through that lens, the reaction from the stands becomes easier to understand. They’re not booing “just a normal lad from Liverpool”. That lad is long gone.

Camilo A. A.

(Top photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

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