Carragher warns Liverpool star over ‘biggest exit issue’ with the Reds set to ‘lose £80m’
Jamie Carragher insists Liverpool fans will not understand if Trent Alexander-Arnold decides to leave Anfield on a free transfer in the summer transfer window.
The Reds are having a fantastic season with Arne Slot’s side leading the Premier League by three points, while they have a game in hand over second-placed Chelsea, and they are also top of the Champions League group stage table.
Slot has had to deal with difficult questions over the futures of key trio Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, with all three players out of contract at the end of the current campaign.
Liverpool have reportedly made offers to all three players, but none of the three have officially signed new deals yet, with the trio allowed to speak to foreign clubs about potential free transfers in January.
Alexander-Arnold is reportedly attracting strong interest from Real Madrid with Liverpool still around £100k a week short of his contract demands.
Although a report on Thursday claimed that the Reds have now submitted an ‘improved’ contract ‘offer’ to the 26-year-old as they hope the England international stays at Anfield.
Liverpool legend Carragher insists that the “biggest issue” for Alexander-Arnold is his potential departure being on a free transfer with supporters feeling they “are losing an £80 million player for nothing”.
Carragher wrote in his Daily Telegraph column: “My team-mate Michael Owen had one year left on his contract when he joined Real from Liverpool in 2004. He too was in a struggling Liverpool team with a new manager coming in – Rafael Benítez – and a good deal of uncertainty.
“Again Real paid only £8 million for a footballer who was worth much more. Michael’s time at Manchester United later in his career would have done more damage to his legacy but still – the terms of his departure to Real did not help.
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“That is the biggest issue for Trent – the free transfer. As with Macca [Steve McManaman], the supporters will feel that the club are losing an £80 million player for nothing, and they will not like it. My advice to Trent would be to sign a new deal, with a reasonable buyout clause, that will give the club some value if Real or anyone else decide to meet it.
“The fans’ attitude towards Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, both also out of contract in the summer, is not the same as it is for Trent. There are lots of reasons for that but a big part of that is the local-boy factor. The feeling is that playing for Liverpool should be the ultimate ambition for a Liverpool lad. It was that way for Macca, Michael [Owen], Stevie [Steven Gerrard] and myself and it will be the same for Trent and Curtis Jones.
“At the end of my career, in 2013, I was offered a one-year contract extension by Liverpool. I turned it down. I did so because I knew I was coming to the end as a Premier League player and I did not want the fans to remember me struggling in my final year.
“I didn’t want them to dread me being in the team. That is how I felt the pressure of being a local lad at Liverpool. Would I have turned down a year on Premier League money at another club? No. I would have cared much less about what those fans thought of me and taken the salary.
Other locally sourced players have left Liverpool, and in the case of Ian Rush, from North Wales, come back. But Rush left for Juventus for a good fee. The situation with Salah and Van Dijk has so far meant that there has been less focus on Trent. I expect the two older players to renew.
“When they do so the pressure will increase on Trent. He will have noticed that – unlike Salah – there is no banner in the Kop demanding that Trent’s wage demands are met.”
