Trent Alexander-Arnold ‘tarnished’ by Real Madrid move? Only by idiots…

Michael Owen left Liverpool for Real Madrid in 2004 and 21 years later, Trent Alexander-Arnold is about to make the same switch. “It will tarnish him in some eyes even though it shouldn’t,” said Owen, who should have added ‘f*** ’em’ as that would be sensible advice to a young man who faced the biggest decision of his life.

Before making his decision, Alexander-Arnold should have given nary a thought to how a minority of people will perceive him. He owes nothing to Liverpool fans that has not been paid handsomely in over 300 games of dedicated brilliance. He has never shirked, he has never grumbled, he has never been anything other than devoted to Liverpool in over 20 years. Only idiots would not think that is enough, and those kind of idiots should be ignored.

The world has got simultaneously smaller and bigger since Owen left Liverpool in 2004; only the most narrow of red minds would now pretend that Real Madrid could not possibly hold any allure, that there is no club that can compete with the Reds, no stadium that can hold a candle to Anfield, no fans like Liverpool fans.

As Owen said in November: “Growing up, if you ask most people what is the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid is the holy grail for a footballer. The white kit, the history, the European Cups, the stadium.”

Two decades on, that sentiment has multiplied. Today’s children wear shirts from Madrid, Barcelona and Dortmund alongside those of their parents’ clubs; today’s Generation Z play FIFA as Bayer Leverkusen and then watch Vinicius Jnr clips on TikTok. And that’s Alexander-Arnold’s era. Much has been made of the influence of Jude Bellingham, but Real don’t need cheerleaders; they are the biggest club in the world.

And no, that doesn’t change because they are facing a season without silverware; that’s not how the football hierarchy works.

READ: Alexander-Arnold joins list of every Premier League club’s biggest free transfer exit

Two other factors set Alexander-Arnold apart from Owen. One is the fact that the right-back has won pretty much everything with Liverpool while Owen had somehow claimed his own Ballon d’Or but won nothing with Liverpool barring some domestic medals.

He clearly felt Liverpool were holding him back in his career – and was vocal about saying so – and the fans then took great pleasure in serenading him with ‘where were you in Istanbul?’. No such smugness will work with Alexander-Arnold; he will not miss out on Liverpool’s finest hours because he was there.

The other factor is that Owen was a goalscorer. Continue to score goals and he was always going to get another chance to join a super-club. The fact that he ran down his contract and made himself cheaper was a kick in the teeth for Liverpool but, like with Harry Kane nearly 20 years later, goals open doors. Sometimes very expensive, gold-plated doors.

Alexander-Arnold is in an altogether different position. As a right-back, Real will never pay the £100m-plus he would cost if he was under long-term contract. Realistically, he either joins Real for nothing now, or in another five or six years when he will either be free again or relatively cheap. And there are no guarantees that he will still be the most coveted right-back in the world into his 30s.

It wasn’t really a choice between Liverpool and Real Madrid, even though it will be painted as such. And absolutely not about money, though others will cling to that tantalising concept. It’s probably an entirely human choice between comfort and adventure, the kind which we all make several times throughout our lives.

On this occasion Alexander-Arnold has chosen adventure; only a narrow-minded and perspective-challenged minority will begrudge him that decision.