And then there was one. If Sense has been found in the transactions between Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool in the past two weeks, what is from the last man who is standing? What about Trent Alexander-Arnold, all alone in a club where only walking was never done?
We almost know where his story goes. And we know what the shirt burners think about that. But what about the why – are why – beyond the obvious?
There are several conversations here and they can touch the dubious wisdom by thinking that Real Madrid is currently the right move, or the ego that drives it. But we come back to that.
Let us now have a more nuanced discussion about what this generation talent owes or not to Liverpool.
Which means that we have to start with puppies that have been left over the road, because Alexander-Arnold has seen a few. And understanding what he has seen is perhaps just the key to understand him.
He has been helpful in this respect – unlike his contract, he spoke a lot about the puppies. He talks very well about it. That is, he has never been afraid of offering a powerful voice to the subject of Academy Football and the commodification of young men by their clubs.
This is an interesting time of the year to see his views again because a broadcast of his decision is approaching, or even because Liverpool could win the competition this weekend, but because April and May were always complicated months for Alexander-Arnold. By complicated I mean brutal.
They were his months of fear, when Dreamers were awakened by the knife in the Academy System. That was cull-time in the hothouse, you see, with friends tidy for strangers in the annual cycle.
Alexander-Arnold lived, like most at the top, between the ages of nine and 18 years old. He is 26, so that explains a good part of his life and he not only knows the statistics that we tend to recite. He knew the faces.
This, from 2023, is only a little bit of the brand that it has left with him: 'Think about it, the fact that you have six, seven, eight-year-olds who constantly fight for contracts is crazy, ridiculous.
'Even if you arrive in the year 11, under the age of 16, you try to sit GCSEs and worry at the same time if you get a contract next year. It is the transition from school and innocence to paid and this is a job.
'When I think back to my story, I put all that hard work on a daily basis, offered everything, but there were others who did exactly the same as me and what did they show? They didn't get anything back from the academy when they let them go. They (the club) names, names, names, names, names. '
It is the 'taken' who does it for me, four of them. So this was not a speech for Optiek or an unguarded moment torn from his context it came from a video of 32 minutes on the Alexander-Arnold website. He had brought Steven Gerrard, Steve Sidwell and two players out of the game to keep an intelligent, passionate chat about what could be done better.
That's what he insisted on. It was something he was still strong, until the point of activism – two years ago he set up a project to find out opportunities and finance for the away because he knows, for whatever improvements there have been in the academy policy, players are appreciated and cherished by their clubs until they are not. It is a language in which he is fluent. Of course he made it through, the last man who stood, but he doesn't have what he saw unseen.
He is still close to Liam Robinson, who was released at the age of 16 and now works in deviation – sewers, actually. And Josh Agbozo, a teammate from nine to 16. Today he is a professional assistant.
When Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn (now in Salford City) were labeled as 'The Pups' in their early journeys to train with the first team, Robinson and Agbozo got the other side of the coin.
That is how football works and has to work, but there are no soft edges and less soft landings. Some clubs are better at guaranteeing the latter than others, and Liverpool has often done better than most, but it is always transactional. Cold. There is no shortage of puppies on the roads outside of Anfield.
So a word about loyalty- if Alexanderarnold believes that his debt was reimbursed by his contribution to every major trophy in club football, he would be perfect. And he should leave with the blessings of everyone who has seen him play, and double from everyone who understands what was needed to get a minute on the field.
Turning the knife against the employer is nothing that has not been carried out in reverse time. Good for him.
Whether Real Madrid is the right choice is only told in the fullness of his next contract, assuming that there are no wild late changes in the heart.
But on the basis of the most recent developments in Spain, and especially the suggestion that manager Carlo Ancelotti will soon walk out of the city, we can reasonably question the feeling.
At the same time, we can ask where Real Turn Turn Turn Turn if they are indeed taking away a man who is perhaps the biggest manager in history. In contrast to hopeful speculation, I was told that it will not be Jurgen Klopp, with Xabi Alonso very much the preferred option.
But will the succession go smoothly, as Liverpool reaches with Arne Slot, and if that is not the case for which they have a little earlier, would Real Madrid be upgrade in the short term? Second in La Liga, beaten by Arsenal in Europe, somehow inflated beyond their norm by SuperGos-this season has formed a mess.
I have always seen as all the trophies and no soul, a club that can elevate a player to unprecedented heights, just as easy as he can clean them up for no good reason.
A club where Gareth Bale brought football from the gods in the largest final and was still stuck, harassed and chased in his car.
He was a pretty handy player. Even better than Alexanderarnold, actually. And there was a reason why he finally mentioned Madrid behind Wales and Golf.
If Alexander-Arnold follows his path, he must leave Liverpool without guilt. Those who look for loyalty of their stars can be better served by Crufts than football, where the road runs in both directions. As it should.