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3 days ago
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Liverpool have rejected Real Madrid’s attempt to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold in the January window.
The defender, 26, will be out of contract in the summer, and is free under regulations to sign a pre-contract deal for next season from New Year’s Day. Madrid have long been linked as his eventual destination but an attempt to pre-empt that process has fallen flat, with Liverpool rejecting the move.
Madrid’s approach for Alexander-Arnold was rebuffed before any financial package for buying out the remainder of his contract could be offered.
Liverpool’s executives continue to be in negotiation with Alexander-Arnold’s advisers and family, with little indication, public or otherwise, that he would like to leave his boyhood club.
The Alexander-Arnold situation continues to be without a long-term solution while the club are also still to reach agreements to extend the contracts of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk. If Liverpool’s desire is to keep all three, then finances, profit and sustainability regulations and wage structures may preclude that.
Last summer, Liverpool made only one senior addition to the squad Arne Slot inherited from Jurgen Klopp, the Italian Federico Chiesa, who has struggled with injuries. Selling Alexander-Arnold in January would release funds as a “pure profit” as he is a former youth-team player but that avenue has been rejected.
Madrid’s intention is for the England international to be an immediate replacement for the veteran right-back Dani Carvajal, 32, set to miss the rest of the season with a cruciate knee ligament injury. While Salah and Van Dijk have spoken on the record about the continuing negotiations, Alexander-Arnold is yet to speak in public on the situation.
At the weekend, Slot distanced himself from the negotiations with the trio, with the manager saying: “I think I have a lot of control over what they do if they are on the training pitch or in a meeting with me. But if you’re talking about their private life I don’t have control. I have control over what I expect from them on the pitch and I’m really pleased to see what Trent, Mo and Virgil bring on the pitch.”
Alexander-Arnold was a mainstay in the Klopp era, and was a Premier League title winner in 2019-20, having lifted the Champions League the previous year. With Liverpool currently running away at the top of the league, Alexander-Arnold, should he move on, may sign off from the club he joined as a six-year-old with a second title.
