Jamie Carragher believes that Liverpool fans are right to feel abandoned by Trent Alexander-Arnold after he announced his decision to leave the club at the end of the season.
The Reds – legend asked the logic in moving to Real Madrid – where Alexander -Arnold is expected to play his football in the next term – after he passed the Academy and had won trophies in a club like Liverpool.
Carragher, who is the second highest appearance maker in the history of the Reds, accepted the position of the Spanish giants at the top of the football pyramid, but argued that home-grown stars such as Alexander-Arnold risk their 'legacy' for 'short-term profit'.
“It's just what it's like,” he wrote in De Telegraaf. “Because supporters will distinguish between those who put the club first in the continuous fight to take on the super power of Real Madrid, and those accused of thinking about their own career.”
On Monday, the 26-year-old finally finished months of speculation around his future when he announced that he would not extend his contract after the end of the season.
“After 20 years at Liverpool Football Club it is now time for me to confirm that I will leave at the end of the season,” Alexander-Arnold wrote in a statement on social media. 'This is easy to make the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life.
'I know that many of you have wondered why or frustrated that I have not yet spoken about this, but it was always my intention to keep my full focus on the best interests of the team that was no. 20.
'This club has been my whole life – my whole world – for 20 years. From the academy to date, the support and love that I have felt of everyone inside and outside the club will stay with me forever. I will have debts for all of you. '
Many Reds fans have responded angry to the approaching departure of the most prominent and successful 'scouser in our team', while those outside the club have expressed more optimistic opinions about the situation.
Alexander -Arnold's years of service and trophy -which includes a few Premier League titles -are cited as justification why Reds -fans should give the defender their blessing.
But Carragher pushed back on this story and insisted that fans in Liverpool are right to feel hurt by the departure, especially when the party is successful and looks good to win more large awards.
“Players are even more loved if they really mean it when they say they don't want to play for someone else,” he added. 'If that image of the own talent that the dream lives is an illusion, people feel abandoned.
'[Ryan] Giggs and [Paul] Scholes will always be worshiped at Man United as the 'class of' 92 'members who have never thought to leave, while David Beckham is considered someone who had a career plan and was brilliant enough to follow it.
'There is no right or wrong with that. Different players have different characteristics and ambitions. Fans of Liverpool did not think that Alexander-Arnold saw his path in the same way as [Michael] Owen and Beckham because he said his dream was to follow the club to be captain and his hero [Steven] Gerrard.
“Fans will be clearly upset.”
Mail Sport was the first English newspaper that reported that Real Madrid was convinced that he was already securing Alexander-Arnold in December and not much has changed along the way.
It is understood that the contract is not yet officially signed, but will soon be with the international of England to join his good friend and three Lions teammate Jude Bellingham in the Spanish capital.
Fans have received Alexander-Arnold with heat despite all the noise about his future this season, but it will be intriguing to see how Anfield responds on Sunday when Liverpool Arsenal is host in what his penultimate home game will be.
Alexander-Arnold was free to open conversations with real and other overseas clubs on New Year's Day after he had dropped his Reds deal.
Sports director Richard Hughes' first call in the task was for the representatives of Alexander-Arnold and the final bid would have made him the best paid full back in the Premier League.
Liverpool is convinced that they have done their utmost to seduce him to stay.
Real will now try to sign him on time for the FIFA Club World Cup in June with a 10-day window for transfers.
That will probably require some compensation and the cooperation of Liverpool – which is not guaranteed – but the Spanish club will try.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti is generally expected to leave the club this summer with Bayer Leverkusen -Baas Xabi Alonso the hot favorite to take over from the Italian.
Alexander-Arnold came to Liverpool of six years old and played 352 times for his boys' club. He is the vice-captain and has won every trophy he Kan-De Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.