Football Daily | Trent Alexander-Arnold and the Anfield jeers of fans who feel jilted

6 hours ago 3

WALK ON … THROUGH THE BOOS

During last week’s video in which Trent Alexander-Arnold revealed that he would be leaving Liverpool come season’s end, he referred to the “noise” surrounding his decision and hoped it would not drown out his team’s achievement in winning the Premier League title this season. And while his unsurprising news prompted even more unsurprising online wailing, hand-wringing and accusations of treachery, the perceived wisdom was that those who feel Alexander-Arnold has some sort of weird moral obligation to remain at Anfield until such time as Liverpool deem him surplus to their requirements were simply crazies on the internet. People who couldn’t handle being jilted for somebody better. And that match-going fans would respect the defender’s decision to move on to pastos nuevos and show their appreciation for all the happiness he has brought them in his years with the club.

And to be fair, plenty of them did, even if the number who didn’t was large and loud enough to prompt post-match pondering from Arne Slot over whether the split between those who applauded and booed the 26-year-old’s second-half introduction was 60-40, 50-50 or 40-60. “I don’t know but what I do know is clapping is not as loud as booing,” declared Liverpool’s head coach after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal. “It is a privilege to live in Europe where everyone can have his own opinion and express their own opinion and that is what we saw.” Booed when his name was announced before the game, booed on to the pitch and subsequently booed each time he touched the ball, the hostility to which Alexander-Arnold was subjected naturally became the main talking point of a largely inconsequential encounter.

After criticising the media for telling Liverpool fans “how they should feel” about Alexander-Arnold’s departure last week, the columnist and pundit Jamie Carragher had a pop at those Liverpool supporters who felt strongly enough about it on Sunday to jeer the player. “For me, I don’t believe any player putting on that red shirt who goes out to play for the club and win three points and to win trophies should be booed,” he clucked. “I understand there’s a lot of ill-feeling. Some people outside of Liverpool don’t get that – I do. But booing one of your own players while they’re playing is not for me.”

While Alexander-Arnold gave no indication that he was even remotely fazed by the abuse and diligently engaged in the usual post-match platitudes instead of cupping his ears to all four sides of the ground and sprinting across Stanley Park to sign for Everton, only he and his nearest and dearest will know how much he was hurt by the reception afforded to him. A couple of his teammates, however, made little or no secret of their contempt for the vitriol visited upon their pal. Not long after Dominik Szoboszlai had angrily curtailed his post-match niceties by way of response to the opprobrium, Andy Robertson was asked for his thoughts on the matter. “It’s not nice to see a friend get booed,” he said. “He’s made the decision and it’s not nice to see a friend get booed but as I said we can’t tell people how to act. I can tell you how I feel about it; I’m extremely proud of what he’s done for the club. I love him as a friend and player and he will be missed for me as one of my best friends in the game.” Finally, some perspective but as the famous old song goes, you’ll never walk alone … unless you set off for Madrid on a free transfer.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“[We feel] disappointment and frustration, of course. But it is because of the owner and his passion that we are growing as a club. He pushes us. He wants us to be better. It is his passion and desire to be a big club – 30,000 people felt the same today. For sure, many of them would go on the pitch and shake us down. Us as a club, we owe a lot to the Marinakis family” – company man Nuno Espírito Santo attempts to defend Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis for furiously confronting him on the pitch after the 2-2 Bigger Cup dream-denting draw with Leicester. As for the big man himself – already fresh off a five-game stadium ban for his conduct this season – the Greek declared: “This is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club. Let’s all be grateful, passionate and keep on dreaming.”

Evangelos Marinakis and Nuno Espírito Santo

Re: Dominic Hodgson (Friday’s Football Daily letters). Many thanks to Liverpool for carrying out his suggestion to ‘provide Arsenal with a guard of honour twice’ in the second half on Sunday. Especially the defence performing their legendary ‘House of Bamboo’ routine for the Gunners first goal. An exceptional and timely touch of class” – Dan Coleman.

After years of watching mindless stat-padding possession-based, risk-averse football, a genuine doff of the cap to Hansi Flick and the Barça players for their throwback to the days of utter chaos. First the Bigger Cup semi-final first leg, then the second leg and now El Clásico” – Noble Francis.

I see that among the explanatory drivel Newcastle United offered to justify redesigning their club badge (Friday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) was the sentence: ‘Its intricate design doesn’t always translate well in today’s digital world. And it’s difficult to reproduce it clearly and consistently.’ If the aim of the new badge is to minimise intricacy and increase ease of reproduction, can I suggest they pursue it to the ultimate digital black-and-white design: a QR code” – Ken Muir [who also went the distance in producing his own one that we couldn’t quite get to translate into this newsletter – Football Daily Ed].

Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Ken Muir, who lands some official Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here.