Jamie Carragher insists Liverpool fans are right to feel "upset" over Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving the club ahead of a possible Real Madrid move.
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Trent announces Liverpool exitExpected to join Real MadridCarragher says Reds fans are right to feel upsetFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
The 26-year-old announced on Monday that he would be leaving Liverpool this summer to end a 20-year stay with the club. Now, Reds legend Carragher has spoken about the "simmering resentment" some supporters will feel over the academy product leaving them, with the right-back expected to head to Madrid next.
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Carragher said in his column for The Telegraph: "Real [Madrid] are one of only two clubs to have won more European Cups than Liverpool, so when a top-class academy player makes this kind of a move, there is a simmering resentment from the local fanbase that they are trying to separate themselves from ‘their own’, or think there is something bigger or better out there for them. You can call that unfair, naive or even deluded all you like. In trying to explain how it is, people jump on me and tell me it is wrong to think that way, and Alexander-Arnold should be wished well on his new adventure.
"Liverpool fans are being told their reaction to Alexander-Arnold leaving is emotional more than sensible. My response to that is who is really the naive and deluded one when analysing how fans feel about such transfers? Would Manchester United have been happy to see Ryan Giggs or Paul Scholes leave in their prime for Real Madrid? Would Chelsea have wished John Terry all the best had he followed Jose Mourinho to Spain for nothing?
"How would Arsenal fans feel if Bukayo Saka said he wants to fulfil a lifetime ambition to wear the white shirt in the Bernabeu? 'Those lads would never do that', is the predictable response. But isn’t that the point? Players are loved even more when they genuinely mean it when they say they do not want to play for anyone else. If that image of the home-grown talent living the dream is an illusion, people feel let down.
"Giggs and Scholes will always be adored at United as the “Class of ’92” members who never gave any thought to leaving, while David Beckham is looked upon as someone who had a career plan and was brilliant enough to follow it. There is no right or wrong to that. Different players have different characteristics and ambitions. Liverpool fans did not think Alexander-Arnold saw his path in the same way as [Michael] Owen and Beckham because he said his dream was to captain the club and follow his hero [Steven] Gerrard. Fans are obviously going to be upset."
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The fallout from this has not been a positive one from an Alexander-Arnold perspective. Fans have reacted angrily to the news, and so have establishments in Liverpool, but the England international has enjoyed huge success at Anfield and that, arguably, should not be forgotten. But as Carragher points out, his legacy will be tarnished by this move.
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Alexander-Arnold's penultimate game at Anfield is on Sunday at home to Arsenal in the Premier League. It remains to be seen what reaction he will get from supporters.
