- Real Madrid made an approach for Trent Alexander-Arnold on New Year’s Day
- The right back will be able to leave Liverpool for free at the end of his contract
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! New formation, some new faces, but the optimism has gone at Old Trafford
Arne Slot has warned Real Madrid that their pursuit of Trent Alexander-Arnold won’t be straightforward by citing the example of their failure to convince Steven Gerrard to leave Merseyside for Madrid.
Madrid made an approach to Liverpool on New Year’s Eve to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold in January but it was emphatically rebuffed. Though with the 26-year-old’s contract expiring this summer, the Spanish giants could get him for free then.
Asked by reporters whether it concerned him that Madrid tended to get their way, the Liverpool boss said: ‘There was one player (Gerrard) they would have really loved to have but he didn’t come. You know him better than me. So it has happened.’
Jose Mourinho tried to sign Gerrard for Madrid in 2010 but the former Liverpool captain turned the opportunity down. Earlier this year, Gerrard said: ‘I had offers from Real Madrid and Chelsea, but my heart was always with Liverpool. I never regretted my decision. If I could go back in time, I’d do the same.’
Like Gerrard, Alexander-Arnold is a graduate of the Liverpool academy but if he was to move to the Spanish capital, he would follow in the footsteps of former Liverpool players like Steve McManaman and Michael Owen.
And Slot insisted that the growing speculation around Alexander-Arnold, as well as Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, who are both also out of contract in the summer, is causing no distractions ahead of Liverpool’s clash against Manchester United on Sunday.
Liverpool rebuffed an approach for Trent Alexander-Arnold from Real Madrid on New Year’s Day
Real Madrid had previously failed to lure Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard to the Bernabeu
Next up for Liverpool is Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United, who are on a torrid run of form
Asked how much it would hurt Liverpool if Alexander-Arnold left, Slot said: ‘These are all ifs. My answer is that he’s with us and his full focus is with us. This is what you saw in the West Ham game and the games before. He’s in almost everyone’s team of the year for the first half of the season. That shows how much he’s here at the moment.
‘For me, there’s no distraction at all and I don’t see any distraction with Trent as well, if you simply look at his performances and how he trains. I see him train every day and it’s the same with Virgil (Van Dijk) and Mo (Salah) and all the others because if you play at a club like this, every player is probably in the interest of someone. That’s part of football and that’s why we’re not distracted by it.’
Victory for Liverpool against their arch-rivals would put them on 48 points, eight clear of Arsenal after 19 games and on course for 96 points but Slot stressed that it would not be a ‘bottle job’ if his side failed to win the Premier League in his first season.
‘I have a lot of trust in the players in every aspect of football – their mentality, their quality on the ball and their work-rate but for me it’s not about bringing it over the line because there are 20 games still left and it’s still a long way to go,’ he said.
‘There have been so many seasons in the Premier League – and even in the league I worked in before – when so many teams who have a comfortable lead sometimes win it and sometimes other teams come back. If you have this lead in the Eredivisie, you are 90 percent sure to win the league because it is nearly impossible to lose against the lower teams.
‘But this week we have seen Chelsea lose against Ipswich, so that tells you it is impossible to look so far ahead. It is possible in the Eredivisie, but impossible here because there are so many good players and good teams. So it is a good lead – but it’s not enough to be comfortable. That’s a nice way to say it.’
And Slot added that after a stunning 2024 where he lost just one game across his time at Feyenoord and Liverpool, he would be taking nothing for granted going into his first game of the new year.
‘There are no guarantees for 2025 so we just have to earn it – all these wins again. That’s what we will be trying to do – starting with Sunday.’
