Trent Alexander-Arnold sat before me in silence. It was the second time I had been in his company for a one-on-one interview.
The first was at his home in Woolton in 2018. He was a 19-year-old at this point, enjoying his breakthrough season as a Premier League footballer, and just four weeks away from playing in a Champions League final.
Back then I asked teenage Trent where he thought he might be in five years time. Without flinching he said: “Still at Liverpool being an important figure in a team that's brought a lot of silverware to the club.” A totally acceptable, stock answer from a young footballer playing out his dreams for his boyhood club.
The silent treatment
Five and a half years later I am interviewing him for the cover of FourFourTwo magazine. I reminded Alexander-Arnold of the question and his 2018 comments and took the opportunity to repeat the question, bracing for an off-the-shelf response, albeit a level or two up from his 2018 answer.
E.g. ‘Liverpool captain, England regular, a leader in a team that regularly challenges and wins titles and a player regarded as one of the best in their position etc etc’. Instead, I got the silent treatment. He was really thinking about his answer and one year on, it’s what Alexander-Arnold didn’t say that reveals the most to me.
I reminded him that five years on from that point would mean that he would be 30 years old. “That's scary that you know,” he said, blowing air through his cheeks. But it didn’t seem to help him formulate an answer.
“Ah, what do I even say,” he grasped, before more silence. Eventually, he offered a quote for the record.
"I think big individual honours, being for me at some point the best player in the world, being someone who… Yeah, I would say, captain, playing the part in winning trophies for England.
“I think cementing a… [ten-second pause] legendary [ten-second pause] status within football, whether or not it's recognised in five years or not, I think what I do between now and five years will be, potentially in 15, 20 years time… I’ll look back and I think these five years will cement a legendary status in football [for me].
“Whether it's recognised or not who knows. It's all perception, but I think it [the next five years] will cement it.”
With that, the forty-minute interview was over and we shook hands as I promised to conduct a progress check with him in 2029.
It was only after digesting the quotes and writing the feature that it occurred to me there was a big Liverpool-shaped hole in the comments. At that point, Alexander-Arnold really felt like a one-club man, so no mention of his boyhood club jarred. Why not mention them?
This was January 2024, and it was hard to imagine Trent Alexander-Arnold in anything other than a Liverpool or England shirt. Things change quickly in football, however.
Alexander-Arnold had (the dreaded) 18 months remaining on his contract at this stage, and two weeks later Jurgen Klopp announced he was leaving as Liverpool manager. All of a sudden, the future looked uncertain.
In the preceding 12 months, Real Madrid’s stalwart right-back Dani Carvajal has ruptured his ACL and turned 33, Jude Bellingham has established himself as a star at The Bernabeu and Alexander-Arnold’s friendship with the former Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund midfielder has grown strong.
Omitting Liverpool from his answer felt deliberate. Reading between the lines, it gave a sense to me that Alexander-Arnold has desires to test himself abroad.
Omitting Liverpool from his answer felt deliberate. Reading between the lines, it gave a sense to me that Alexander-Arnold has desires to test himself abroad.
That’s no crime, but it will still hurt Liverpool fans if he does leave Merseyside. It won't be pain-free for Alexander-Arnold either.
We were sitting in a function room of a golf club in West Derby, a make-shift photo studio for the afternoon, minutes away from where he grew up. Liverpool is all he has known, but the unknown (Real Madrid and the potential to put his name in the conversation for a Ballon d’Or) is a strong pull.
Alexander-Arnold has been playing for Liverpool since the age of six. The definition of local boy done good. Arguably one of the best players the city has ever produced. But he is fiercely ambitious. Perhaps he has outgrown Liverpool. Or achieved everything he wanted to at the club, bar possibly being permanent captain?
Listening back to the interview a year on with the context of Liverpool losing Klopp, not achieving their goals last season (they were two points ahead of Manchester City at the top of the table at the time of the interview) and Real Madrid publicly declaring their interest in the player, it feels deliberate that Liverpool was left out of his answer.
Time will tell, but my prediction is that he will be wearing more white than red next season.
