Trent Alexander-Arnold used to get angry as a young player at Liverpool’s academy.
‘I would lose my head,’ he told Mail Sport back in 2019. ‘I would be diving into tackles trying to get my emotions out.
‘They told me the mental side was going to stop me making it… that there was no way a manager would like or want me.’
It’s fair to say Alexander-Arnold got over all of that, fair to say that the proved those well-intentioned age group coaches wrong. That he leaves Liverpool for Spain this summer as a Premier League great is the greatest compliment he can probably be paid.
Nobody ever wanted to be a full-back did they? English football has had some very good ones down the years. Players like Phil Neal at Anfield and, later, Gary Neville at Manchester United and Ashley Cole at Chelsea.
But it was never really fashionable until now. No kid ever dashed into a sports shop and asked for the shirt with a number two or number three on the back.
Trent Alexander-Arnold took to X on Monday morning to confirm his Liverpool exit this summer
The Liverpool right back will bow out on a high after their Premier League success this season
Alexander-Arnold will link-up with England team-mate Jude Bellingham (right) at Real Madrid
Modern coaching and modern managers – people like Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola – have helped to change that and players like Alexander-Arnold have taken that ball and dribbled with it. And passed with it – over distance and with phenomenal accuracy – and scored with it. They have, to a degree, brought fundamental change to our game.
‘Trent’ – as they will always call him on Anfield – brought joy to his position and to all of those fortunate enough to watch him. He has won just about everything he can win with Liverpool over the seven years and that’s appropriate as he was fundamental to all of it.
Klopp’s Liverpool would not have been the same without him. It’s as simple as that. He will prove irreplaceable now as Arne Slot tries to build on this season’s Premier League title win.
But that doesn’t mean the 26-year-old shouldn’t leave. It’s sad that his farewell video released on Monday morning on social media carried such an apologetic air, doubtless a consequence of some of the unpleasantness that has swirled on social media while his future has recently been debated.
There should be no rancour here. No regret or criticism. If Alexander-Arnold is as ambitious and curious as he says then this is undoubtedly time to go – when he is strong, able and still young enough to adapt to the new things that will undoubtedly be asked of him at the Bernabeu.
I will always remember watching him play at the Stadio Olimpico as Liverpool somehow came through a torrid Champions League semi-final second leg against Roma in 2018. It was a chaotic evening as Liverpool lost 4-2 to somehow progress 7-6 on aggregate.
Alexander-Arnold looked lost for much of that night. He was only 19 and looked every inch the callow youth that he was. It was his first full season in the team.
Some of those defensive insecurities have endured. Those who say otherwise simply aren’t watching properly.
Some of those defensive insecurities have endured but he is magnificent footballer regardless
But the majesty of the rest of his game – the astonishing range of his skill set – has always compensated quite spectacularly and beautifully.
When I think of Alexander-Arnold now, I think of freedom and instinct and expression. And courage and ambition.
He said last season that he thought Klopp’s team were often at their most dangerous when the opposition had the ball in Liverpool’s defensive third simply because the moment they lost it, there would be a red buffalo charge in the opposite direction.
Klopp always told Alexander-Arnold to work off the cuff in that moment, to forget structure and responsibility and team shapes and instead to give himself over to the creative idealist that lived inside his own head.
In some ways, it was coaching at its rawest and most courageous. Can a footballer – especially a defender – ever be handed a more generous template than simply to play free?
When I think of Alexander-Arnold now, I think of freedom and instinct and expression
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So, yes, it’s freedom that should define Alexander-Arnold’s years at the heart of Liverpool’s golden generation. From that point of view, he’s probably moving to the perfect club.
Those who sought to pigeon-hole him or change him down the years were probably always missing the point. The beauty of what Klopp and – to a lesser degree – Slot did with Alexander-Arnold was to live off the sheer audacity of what he brought and leave it to others to pick up any pieces occasionally left behind.
Isn’t that the way it’s always been with the truly great players? Wasn’t there always someone else, usually in the shadows, carrying a shovel?
The only difference with this one is that he wore a full-back’s jersey. Once he got all that youthful frustration and anger out of his system, there was a special footballer underneath. His contribution to his club and indeed to a Premier League era characterised by great Liverpool and Manchester City teams should not be under-estimated.
