Trent Alexander-Arnold (RB) Real Madrid

It’s not mixing up anything. It’s a blatant double standard by you as to what’s acceptable in the middle of a match. Again, free speech, but only if it’s my speech.

I think there’s a bit of revisionism going on here. Macca was hated for a long time for leaving the way he did, at a time when the money received for him would have been vastly more important to the club than now because of how healthy we are financially these days.

Torres was despised for leaving how and when he did, just at the point of some positivity coming into the club because of Kenny’s return. It’s only the passage of time and the fact he was utter dogshit after leaving that fan sentiment towards him softened… it just became a bit sad watching him joylessly labouring up front in blue every week after a while.

Suarez took absolute pelters when he tried to engineer a move to Arsenal and it took fans a long time to forgive him for that (there’s probably some who still don’t). It’s probably only the fact he resigned, while making it fairly clear he’d still leave but at least we’d receive a decent fee for him, also giving people a bonus year to enjoy the talent he was without getting overly invested in his long-term future at the club, that softened attitudes towards him.

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https://x.com/BBCMOTD/status/1921693215444308263

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There is simply no way we would have gotten “a decent fee” for him. How many established world-class players have moved between top clubs for a transfer fee?

That’s just projecting. It wasn’t “blatantly clear” he was off.

This goes back to what I said about Real Madrid and their tapping up via the media. This is how it works. It creates animosity between the player and the fans, hence giving the player the feeling that it’s better for him to leave.

The fans let themselves down yesterday. There’s no ifs and buts about that. Calling them “scum” and “pricks” is undeserved, but they 100% let themselves down.

I think you’re taking the “conservative” line on this? Fans have the right to boo if they want, they just have to deal with the consequences of doing so.

The worst kept secret in the league. You’re fooling yourself, although I suspect this is more to try and hold your facile position than actually trying to convince anyone that it wasn’t actually blatantly clear.

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You’re literally proving what I said in the rest of my post, which you conveniently left out.

Hook, line, and sinker.

This is why I have no issue with him running down his contract, and it’s something that’s going to become more and more common as transfer fees for under-contract players continue to become so inflated. At the age of 26 Trent would have been fully aware that signing a new contract here would have in all probability tied him to the club up to and even into his 30s, when he’d be far less likely to get a move that he wants to a top club and his career would be entering its final stages.

Put simply, Real were never paying £150m-odd for his services if he was fully under contract, and we were never accepting the £20-30m that would have been offered with him in the last year of his contract, because he’d be worth a lot more to us to keep, which is exactly how it played out.

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Part of the fans annoyance is likely the club the player is going to on a free. There’s already talk of Konate being Madrids next free transfer from us.

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Er, no. Haven’t quite managed to multi quote like you. Congratulations :clap:, have a cookie for that one.

Nobody let themselves down yesterday. I wouldn’t say I’m happy about it because it’s a shit situation but at the same time, the fans in the stadium did what they felt was best for the situation at hand and I for one am not going to tie myself in knots in trying to vilify them for it and nor am I going to employ hypocrital double standards to disavow myself from it.

As for Real Madrid, the less said about them the better but if Trent felt the way to go about joining them was in this manner knowing that this is how they operate then… ja.

See @ZinedineBiscan’s post above yours.

I think fans are thinking too much about transfer fees. The few first-hand interviews we’ve seen from people who have been involved in our recruitment teams suggest that transfer fees don’t affect their calculus as much as wages do.

If we get players like Konaté in cheaply and on lower wages, then by all means let them leave on a free and seek astronomical wages elsewhere, if we can continue the pipeline we’ve had.

I would suspect that Alexander-Arnold had far less bargaining power with us simply because of the existence of Bradley, for example.

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I think fans are just going to have to grow up a bit and accept that players’ contracts only guarantee that player will be a club employee for the duration of said contract, and they have no responsibility for guaranteeing their employers a fee when they leave. It’s a business transaction.

On the club’s side, I hope we now have a settled backroom team in place we’ll see us make it a standard to ensure players extend once they hit two years remaining on their deals, and if they refuse then we at that point start making plans for their departure if we insist that we want a fee for them.

At the end of the day it’s on the club to ensure players don’t enter the last year of their contract.

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It’s not about multi-quoting or whatever. Nice way to deflect from the point.

You can’t believe the rumours about him leaving to Real Madrid without also believing the rumours about the club having sufficient belief that he hadn’t made his mind up to keep negotiating with him.

Not unless you already have a narrative in your mind that you want to follow.

I’m also really annoyed at how reductive all the talk about a transfer fee is. If we sold Alexander-Arnold, what would we have done at right-back?

As it stands, if we sold him two years ago as many seem to want, we would have to either go into the market, which would cost us, but also impede the development of Bradley. But if we tried to rely solely on Bradley, we 100% wouldn’t have been able to get as close to the achievements we had last season, nor would we have won the league this season.

Not getting a fee for him is part of what won us the league.

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From what I’ve read they offered Trent a renewal in March/April of last year.They couldn’t stop him entering the final year of his contract, only he could.

Yes, I agree with this - exactly why the club turned down Real’s offer for him in January, they calculated (rightly) he was worth far more than that to us in terms of what he’d offer us over the second half of the season. From Real’s pov though it was a reasonable offer given he was entering his last few months with us and they were at least confident they’d be signing him eventually anyway.

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Trent is a bit of an edge case because of the backroom changes with Klopp and everyone else involved in transfer decision-making leaving. But like I said, now we’ve got a contracts team settled and in place this kind of policy needs to become the standard to avoid this happening in future.

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Fuck all deflection buddy. You snarkily said I didn’t address your point, I just explained why.

Again, you’re disregarding the points being made by trying to paint it as a narrative which serves only to dismiss any other point of view other than your own as spurious. It was blatant he was leaving, he will have known it for a while and to think otherwise is either naieve or simply just trying to justify your view to make a point (hint: it’s not working).

It was literally the next paragraph. You still haven’t replied to it.

You’re still not answering the point. Your argument essentially boils down to “I feel that it is, therefore it is, you’re just trying to argue against what I know to be true”.

It’s not got any factual nor logical basis whatsoever. I don’t see how it’s naïve to believe that someone might be genuinely conflicted over whether he should stay playing for the only club he’s known since he was 6, or whether to try something different while he’s still young.

It’s also a well-known modus operandi of Barcelona and Real Madrid to unsettle players via the media.

Far too many fans (and I’m not saying it’s necessarily the case here) want to emotionally compensate for his potential (then, but actual now) departure by assuming the worst and lashing out at him. I said this all the way back last year, I’ve been saying it since. And it’s still the case here. It’s like fearing that one’s partner will leave you, so you emotionally lash out, and in the end driving the partner away even though it mighht have been an emotionally secure relationship.

I think you’re over thinking that one and to be completely honest, I cannot reconcile your point of view with mine hence you thinking I’m missing it. You may have the last word

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