Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid is a story that began with Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento and Ferenc Puskas in the 1950s, a post-war Galactico strategy that lined the walls of the Santiago Bernabeu in silver.
Half a century later the policy was resurrected by club president Florentino Perez, who threw the chequebook at generational talents like Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Michael Owen and Cristiano Ronaldo. Alexander-Arnold embroiders a team already stacked with bullion, including Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe.
The Liverpool supporters have registered understandable disapproval at losing a marquee player for zip. A good number have taken the departure of “one of their own”, a Liverpool lad, as betrayal, as if pulling on the red shirt is a contract matching theirs, a lifetime commitment to the club.
It’s the law of the jungle. Joining Real Madrid is like winning a place at Oxford, Cambridge or Imperial Universities, Harvard, Yale or Princeton, conferring upon players elite cache. Who can scorn Alexander-Arnold for trading up, not so much in in terms of the football or the quality of competition he will face in La Liga, but the brand power?
It was, you might argue, one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest accomplishments keeping Ronaldo at Old Trafford for an extra year when he had agreed in principle to join Madrid.
Anyone who steps out on the sun-kissed Calle Mayor or Puerta del Sol in the spring, never mind a lad from West Derby, would immediately understand the appeal of a capital rich in culture, architecture and climate.
Liverpool is all Alexander-Arnold has known. He’s already a Premier League and Champions League winner and will almost certainly depart with a second championship medal.
At 26 there is a sense of discovery in all of this for him, the chance to test himself in a new environment and immerse himself in difference. Liverpool don’t bend to many teams and exercise their own power just as effectively as Madrid in plundering talent from elsewhere.
The chatrooms are full of speculation right now about Newcastle striker Alexander Isak preferring a move to Liverpool, for example.
And what are the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk if not examples of the club’s enduring pulling power? Any one of them would be worthy of a seat at Madrid’s table, so Liverpool supporters needn’t feel too sorry for themselves.
Of course, fans see the world differently. Liverpool will always be the only team that matters. The moment you declare for another, you are dead to them. It’s the way of things in the parallel reality that is football fandom.
This stance might soften over time, unless, of course, you do a Michael Owen and end up at Manchester United. There is no way back from that.
Whether Alexander-Arnold improves as a footballer as well as growing as a man, or experiences anything like the intensity and fulfilment of playing in the Premier League is a moot point.
The competitive arc is much flatter in a La Liga, warped by an unequal distribution of cash that heavily favours Madrid and Barcelona.
A visit to the more modest kingdoms of Getafe, Villarreal, Mallorca or Alaves has little of the jeopardy involved in road trips with the reds. Indeed such fixtures might easily see him rested.
That said, he will get the same reaction he is receiving now on the rare occasions Madrid mess up.
I recall a visit to the Madrid training complex prior to the 2003 Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United. It was an unseasonably cold April day high on the Meseta Plateau, frost forcing the players inside onto a basketball court.
Sitting on a balcony above, club members would sip coffee and watch. The previous weekend Madrid had suffered a surprise defeat. The members were muttering away animatedly.
I asked our host what they were saying in what appeared to be heated exchanges. Turns out they were arguing about costly foreign imports not trying hard enough for the shirt.
Wherever you play, fans are fans, which Alexander-Arnold will discover in double quick time should Lamine Yamal tie him in knots in the Clasico or Nico Williams leave him standing at the Metropolitano. Vamos.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/nPT8uMi
Post a Comment
EmoticonClick to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.