Trent Alexander-Arnold is at risk of being frozen out by Arne Slot ahead of his Liverpool exit in the summer. The defender is poised to join Real Madrid on a free transfer, having decided not to continue with his boyhood club. He is widely expected to sign a five-year deal with the Spanish giants.
The news of his impending departure was finally announced on Monday after many months of speculation. Slot went on to reveal that Conor Bradley would get the nod over Alexander-Arnold for this weekend’s game against Arsenal. He explained that he wanted Bradley to gain more minutes ahead of next season.
Trent Alexander-Arnold risks Liverpool exile after what happened in training this week
There is a chance that Alexander-Arnold may be frozen out at Liverpool after what happened at the AXA Training Centre earlier this week. Joe Gomez returned to full training on Friday, having been sidelined for three months with a hamstring injury.
The defender needed surgery, which cast doubt over his chances of playing again before the end of the campaign. However, his return to the training pitch suggests that he could feature for the Reds in the closing stages of the season.
Bradley is likely to start at right-back in Liverpool’s final three games but Gomez could make it onto the bench as the understudy for the Northern Irishman. This could see Alexander-Arnold deemed surplus to requirements, given that he is about to leave.
He will certainly be involved in the celebrations when Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy after their final home game against Crystal Palace. Whether he will get any more minutes on the pitch between now and then is another question, though.
Bradley, meanwhile, will be hoping to make the right-back position his own after Slot hinted that he would be offered the chance to prove himself as a worthy starter.
Quizzed on Alexander-Arnold’s impending exit in Friday’s press conference, the Liverpool boss said: “I think, like everybody who likes Liverpool and who is a fan of Liverpool, we are disappointed for him leaving.
“Not only is a good human being leaving the club but a very, very good full-back is leaving us as well. I also worked at clubs, like AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord, where every season a very good or multiple very good players have left the club.
“So, I’m a bit more used to it maybe that players [are] leaving the club. The experience I have [is] that if a very good player is leaving, the next very good player will step up, and that’s probably what’s going to happen now again as well.”
