It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Trent Alexander Arnold left Liverpool last summer with his head held high, a Premier League winner and a bonafide Anfield icon at just 26. The dream was Real Madrid. The reality, so far, has been a bit of a nightmare.
The right back’s first season in the Spanish capital has been a proper slog. Injuries have bitten, form has dipped, and whispers of a potential exit already are doing the rounds. This week, it emerged he was dropped to the bench for Sunday’s win over Elche after reportedly turning up late for training. Dani Carvajal got the nod instead, a clear message from the boss.
Spanish outlet Marca claim Alexander Arnold “arrived late to one of the final training sessions of the week,” with coach Arbeloa making a point about “discipline and dressing room order.” It’s a firm handshake from the Madrid hierarchy, a reminder that no one not even a high profile English import is above the club’s code of conduct.
It hasn’t been all doom and gloom, mind. The 27 year old has racked up 25 appearances this term and earned genuine praise for his display against Manchester City in the Champions League. But you’d have to think he expected a smoother ride than this.
The rough edges started early. Before he’d even properly settled, Alexander Arnold was effectively banned from driving his beloved £130,000 Range Rover to the training ground. Thanks to Madrid’s sponsorship deal with BMW, players are strictly forbidden from rolling up in any other brand. Each year, the German manufacturer supplies the squad men’s, women’s and basketball with motors for the season. A small detail, but a sign of the rigid structure he’s walked into.
Then came the Anfield return. Just months after his summer exit, he found himself back on Merseyside for a Champions League group stage clash in November. Starting on the bench, he was thrown on with ten minutes left as Liverpool led 1-0. The Kop let him have it. Boos rang out around the ground, followed by pointed chants about Steven Gerrard and his replacement, Conor Bradley. A cold welcome that served as a stark reminder: in football, sentimentality is often a one way street.
That reunion could be on the cards again. If both Liverpool and Madrid get through their quarter final ties, they’re on a collision course for the semis. You suspect the noise around that one would be deafening.
And if the club stuff wasn’t enough, there’s the England headache. Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has waded in, baffled by Trent’s omission from Thomas Tuchel’s 35 man squad for the upcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.
“Listen, we’ve got some good options at right back,” Gerrard said. “Reece James is world class, I really like Livramento… but I just think, ‘Is Trent among the best 35 players in this country?’ Of course he is.”
Gerrard, never one to mince his words, reckons Tuchel might live to regret it. “There’s going to be certain games where England have to open the door, they might be against a low block where it’s really frustrating,” he added. “Trent is one of these players who can come off the bench and just completely change the game with one pass.”
For a player who was once the golden boy of English football, Alexander Arnold now finds himself fighting for his place in Madrid, getting booed by his own, and watching the international break from the sidelines. It ain’t the Bernabeu fairytale he signed up for.
