Real Madrid interest will not make Trent Alexander-Arnold lose focus, says Arne Slot

Liverpool manager defends mental strength of players as speculation continues over futures of key trio

Arne Slot says there is no prospect of Trent Alexander-Arnold losing focus on his Anfield ambitions because of interest from Real Madrid as the contract impasse with his key trio rumbles on.
The deals of Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah run out at the end of the season and early this week Spanish daily newspaper Marca claimed Liverpool’s right-back is a ‘priority’ signing for Real on a free transfer.
Asked if it could have an unsettling impact on his vice-captain, Slot said: “I think you underestimate our players. These players are used to being linked with all the top clubs on a daily basis, if they have contracts or not. If you think they’re disturbed by this interest, then I think you don’t do justice to how strong they are mentally and what they are used to.
“This is part of our job. I was at Feyenoord last year and they linked me with many clubs and before that and before that. This is part of this world we are living in. You just focus on what you have to do. Maybe if you’re 17 or 18 years of age, that could be difficult for you.  But Trent has won the league, has won the Champions League, Virgil and Mo the same. I don’t think that is a problem for them to perform. That’s also what we see at the moment because they’re playing really well, put it that way.”
The suggestion in the Marca report that Liverpool have already accepted Alexander-Arnold will not extend his deal is incorrect.
While conversations continue between all three players’ representatives, sporting director Richard Hughes and others within the Liverpool hierarchy, Slot has input into how the stars’ futures impact his vision.
“Yeah, it would be really weird [if not],” he said.
“There’s no sporting director in the world, even if you have legally no input, that he would bring a player in or extend a player that you don’t want. You always talk about these things. The good thing about being a head coach is that you can always say if these things [like questions about contracts] come up, ‘Go to the sporting director!’
“If you call me manager or head coach that’s different than how it was. I’ve always been a head coach and I’ve always been involved in contract situations like, ‘Who do you want to extend?’
“But I’m not the one that is sitting in front of the agents talking about money. I don’t think Jürgen [Klopp] did this? I think there is no difference. I don’t know because I don’t know how it worked. I know that we spoke for quite some time about ‘manager’ or ‘head coach’. We’ve spoken about it a bit now but for me it is the same.”
In the meantime, Slot says the talks have had no negative influence so far.
“It is not something I am wondering about,” he said.
“If after the last game of this season is played then it might bother me to think, ‘Are they here or not?’
“But my main focus is now the short term and I think in football it is mainly about the short term – especially if you are a manager. We are planning the long term as well but that’s more for me to help Richard [Hughes] with the long term. My main focus is the short term.”
Welcome to the great Anfield contract-rotation policy of 2024.
This week it is Trent Alexander-Arnold’s turn, but stay tuned because a Mohamed Salah worldie against Chelsea this weekend will make his future top of the agenda again. Unless Virgil van Dijk keeps up his imperious form, in which case the ‘give him whatever he wants, right now… and why have you not done so already?’ arguments will be regurgitated.
No doubt the representatives of all three and Liverpool’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, are appreciative of the helpful advice to end the impasse, as if it has not occurred to all concerned that striking a deal as soon as possible would be advisable.
Arne Slot has become so well-rehearsed in his standard answer regarding the trio’s contracts, the press room at the AXA training ground is already chuckling before he delivers it.
“Same questions, same answer,” he said on Friday.
“It is a good thing that everyone wants their contracts renewed because that tells me – and I also see this – they do really well. But I cannot tell you anything.”
The time to be worried about whether these matters will be successfully resolved is if or when the blame games get under way – claims and counter-claims being made about salaries or contracts which are always front, middle and centre of every negotiation.
To the credit of all parties, there have been no such shenanigans. Everyone is being ultra careful about the messaging, underlining the hope from all sides that all three will commit to new terms.
What is universally true is players have their opinion of their value and clubs have theirs based on the budget available, age and analysis of what the contribution will be at the end of a deal as much as the start of it.
The reasons for a stalemate are not overly complicated, but each negotiation has its own complexities to resolve.
The reason Alexander-Arnold’s future is a talking point again is because the Real Madrid-sympathetic newspaper Marca decided this week was as good a time as any to reveal the Spanish champions are interested in the event of him leaving on a free transfer.
It would be more of a revelation if they, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain or just about any top club with annual aspirations of winning the Champions League were not interested in a 26-year-old of such class nearing the end of his contract. When Marca declares that Madrid have decided they want a player, the golden rule of football is it means their target will be paraded at the Bernabeu in a few months’ time. Just look at how they seduced Salah when he was nailed on to leave Liverpool when involved in similarly protracted contract talks three years ago.
Ah… maybe it does not always follow a set formula after all…
The contract issue will continue to cast a shadow over Slot’s fine start at Anfield until those quotes from the trio informing the world ‘they never wanted to leave’ are uttered as they sit pen-in-hand alongside a delighted sporting director.
Slot, Hughes and the returning Fenway Sports Group supremo Michael Edwards have a lot to thank their predecessors for when they consider how healthy the club is. On the thorny issue of Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Salah’s future, however, they are still trying to keep the pins in the hand grenades thrown their way.