For Trent Alexander-Arnold, life changed to seeing a Liverpool shirt.
It had nothing to do with the first red set he received as a child or when he stepped in Anfield to watch his first game, but it was all a remarkable afternoon as a teenager.
At the beginning of 2017, Alexander-Arnold was just broken into the Liverpool team. He was ambitious and burning with desire, but the only household he thought he was known was his.
Wrong. Entering a city -oriented restaurant with his family, a new reality confronted him. A young boy was dressed in red, decorated on his back with 'Alexander-Arnold 66'.
It didn't really feel, but it was, he later explained with Wonder Wonder, the ultimate compliment. The recognition here is acidic, but this was a sign that the boy was doing well. He kept doing well, because 349 performances, 86 assists, 22 goals and seven trophies would suggest for eight years.
So there was something dark symbolic about a Liverpool shirt that showed how life had changed again this week for Alexander-Arnold. On this occasion, however, it was up to a clown with a lighter and tap account, urgently using a storm and looking for validation.
Whether '@liverpoolfc27' has chosen his username to indicate that his IQ can only be speculated, but what a miserable episode it was in a saga that, for an unknown reason, broke out and this 26-year-old public enemy no. 1.
A point of stress: nothing has changed since December 29, when Mail Sport wrote about Real Madrid and expected the English international to sign on a free transfer this summer. There were no new details in these final round stories about contract length or no new songs for a potential salary.
It felt like someone, some somewhere. If that were the case, the mission has been successful.
“It hurts that he has run his contract, since we made him what he is today,” says Michael Wickham, a four -decades fan. 'I don't offer him bad will and I understand that it is difficult to ignore when Madrid is correct – but I do have a problem with the way his departure and this leak.
'We have nine games left and although we are 12 points clear, we still have a lot to do to win the competition, so why is this now? I believe he has been known about this for a while, so why not announce it at the start of the season? Be a man and admit it. '
Those who look inside from the outside will be surprised why Opprobrium is raining on a man who helped his club to win every big trophy that is there and a mural is dedicated to a street in the shade of Anfield. He does not leave for a free transfer to waste his time in Saudi Arabia, he goes to Madrid.
Liverpool is a city with its own opinion about how things should be done, especially when it comes to football. If you are a local boy who can do what the millions dreamed of, you become public ownership. There would simply not be the same level of hysteria somewhere else in the country.
You don't have to agree with that statement, but it is true. When one of their own peers beyond the beginning of the M62 and wonders how life could be elsewhere, the level of anger is white -hot and the views on situations are not changed.
Steve McManaman knows this better than most. McManaman, just like Alexander-Arnold, was a generation talent. He won two of the three trophies of Liverpool in the 1990s and was the beacon of light in a decade of misery, but there is little warmth for him because he moved to Madrid on a Bosman in 1999.
Facts are difficult for many, but here are some to prove that situation in its true light. It is never mentioned that Liverpool wanted to sell McManaman to Barcelona in 1997 (and had agreed a fee) without he wanted to leave. Nor does another crucial element do.
“I could have went to Juventus in November or December (1998),” McManaman explained to me once. 'It would be for a nominal fee, from what I can remember. But Gerard Houllier said no. He wanted to keep me until the end of the season, to work and help the team.
“I thought it was good about that. But I started to follow Italian lessons because I thought I would leave. In the end it never succeeded. I stayed and finally went up for free. Maybe someone above another story will tell, but that is what I was led to believe that it had happened.
'Without being arrogant, there were many clubs for me. My football was good. I was sitting on a Bosman, so moving for me was a no-brainer for many people. The right names were interested, but there was just something about Spain. I really imagined Spain. Madrid, that kit … they just had that aura. '
It is an aura that many has attracted. It almost hooked Michael Owen in 2004 and the addicted Steven Gerrard, to the point that Marca produced a front page in June 2010 that stated about a potential deal: 'Gerrard: Caliente! Caliente! Caliente! '(Hot! Hot! Hot!)
“I am in conflict,” says Michael Fitzharris, a head-season card holder since the 1980s. “It is difficult not to appreciate Madrid's lures. The history, the galacticos, El Clasico and an almost guarantee for European cups. That said, almost all of the above can be applied to his hometown club.
'Trent has done everything with Liverpool, but perhaps his mind has switched from team prizes to personal aspects, such as his' brand' and his crush at the Ballon d'Or. But the move will influence its estate. He will participate in the football nomads and will not have a real home, unlike Steven Gerrard. '
The point about the balloon d'Or is considerable. Last fall, Alexander-Arnold did an interview with Sky Sports in which he was asked what he would like to achieve the most in the rest of his career.
There were four options: win another Champions League with Liverpool, become Liverpool Captain, win a trophy with England or win the Ballon d'Or.
He chose the latter. With many supporters, his copybook was permanently shortened and since then he has been rated with ultra -critical eyes.
Growls have increasingly become audible when he has made mistakes in competitions and the frustration of him who is silent about his future intentions, although why contracts for him, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are the biggest points when a title has to be won.
A love affair is then intended to end in divorce. Whether Conor Bradley or Bayer Leverkusen's Jeremie Frimpong, in whom Liverpool has a long-term interest, becomes his successor, still to be seen, but making Alexander-Arnold into a pariah is just as ridiculous as unfair.
“For an entity that is proud of business insight and cunning, Fenway Sports Group has opened itself wide with this regardless of what happens,” says Patrick O'Hanlon, an existing Anfield-ruled.
'For what it is worth, I would like to see it stays in Liverpool.
“Would I mislead his movement? Absolutely not. This story about him that Liverpool hangs to dry if no costs are received is not fair.
'In his 22 years at the club, what figure can be placed on what he has brought financially on the back of his name?
'If he goes for free, Liverpool cannot claim that they have not worth their money.
'There can be no praise what his contribution has been to the various teams that have almost won the lot and those fans have given memories that cannot be purchased.
“He didn't cost us anything – and he owes us nothing.”
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