The Trent Alexander-Arnold story has got lots of people talking – Aaron Cutler explains why Liverpool fans shouldn’t pay attention to most of them.
Football is a game of opinions, and if the last fortnight has taught us anything, it’s that everyone feels compelled to give theirs when it comes to Liverpool.
The Alexander-Arnold transfer saga has bubbled beneath the surface for months. That it reached boiling point in the midst of yet another tedious international break meant it was always going to dominate the news agenda.
But if that was predictable and even understandable, the rush to tell Reds supporters how they should feel and act in this moment is anything but.
In fact, it smacks of ignorance.
Not-so-informed opinions
Since news broke of Alexander-Arnold’s purported transfer to Real Madrid, Kopites have been subjected to an array of ‘hot takes’ from people masquerading as pundits.
In the last two weeks, we’ve heard Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Merson, Michael Dawson, Darren Bent and Alan Smith, with a combined zero Liverpool appearances between them, criticise fan reaction.
According to the ‘experts,’ Liverpool supporters have no right to feel anger towards a star player worth upwards of £80 million running down his contract and leaving on a free.
Moreover, the narrative appears to imply we should thank him for doing so. This kind of distortion highlights the rank hypocrisy that permeates football punditry in the modern era.
This is the same Shearer that bristles at the suggestion Alexsander Isaak could depart Newcastle for a ‘bigger club’ this summer.
It’s the same Merson that had this to say when Robin Van Persie was running down his contract at Arsenal in 2012:
“Not many players leave Arsenal, very rarely, and don’t regret it. It’s an unbelievable club. I’d have liked him to stick it out. He’s burnt his bridges. If he comes back [and doesn’t leave) and they don’t sell him the fans are going to slaughter him.”
What’s changed Merse? Apart from the club in question, of course.
Deserving & undeserving champions
Rival fans will label us conspiracy theorists, but you can’t help but feel there is an anti-Liverpool bias sweeping the country and our television sets.
It’s why, with the Reds on the brink of a 20th league title, so many are quick to dismiss this current incarnation of the Premier League as one of the weakest.
They point to a bedraggled Man City and an injury-hit Arsenal as reasons we’re romping to victory, forgetting Liverpool have lost just once in their first 30 games.
Arne Slot’s men apparently wouldn’t make for ‘great’ champions, despite that record.
But what does that say of previous winners unable to match this same pace?
Only once in the first nine seasons of the Premier League did the eventual victors lose one game or less before Christmas.
If Liverpool will make for average champions, what of those eight predecessors?
Of Alex Ferguson’s 13 title-winning Man United squads, six had lost three games before the turn of the year.
The much-lauded treble winners of 1999 were among that group, and come the opening weekend in April, their points tally was nine fewer than Liverpool’s current tally of 73. They had also played one game more.
There’s yet further evidence to dismiss this foolish notion.
Until the Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp era, only eight teams had amassed more points than Liverpool have currently in a 38-game season. In four of those, more games had also taken place.
As for the great ‘Fergie’, he only broke 90 points twice in a 38-game season. Liverpool can still reach 97.
Supporters define legacies
Intentional or not, partisanship means punditry is rarely neutral. The likes of Gary Neville and Ferdinand prove that weekly.
But this select band of experts is growing ever more detached, as proven with the Alexander-Arnold episode.
Who is Dawson to tell us how we should behave? Has he ever paid to watch Liverpool’s vice-captain play football? Has he invested financially and emotionally in the career of a local lad who has risen through the ranks and ridden highs and lows with us?
Was he watching him in the youth teams? Has he leapt to his defence time and time again when the rest of England, indeed Europe, has questioned his defensive capabilities? Has he organised murals to be painted in his honour?
We know the answer to all those questions, and while Dawson is entitled to his opinion, he has no right to attempt to shape ours.
The same goes for every other ex-professional rushing to talk down any sense of sentimentality and all but labelling irate Liverpool fans as unappreciative.
It’s condescending and out of touch.
The truth is that it’s the opinions of the travelling Kop, those reading this website and anyone who has ever felt any connection to Liverpool and Alexander-Arnold that matter most in this scenario.
They’re the ones who will decide what his legacy looks like, not someone Sky are paying a retainer fee to in order to fill some air time.
Stay tuned to hear what Titus Bramble makes of it all next week.
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