Michael Owen has predicted that Liverpool will lose Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid in the summer but added that he doesn’t think the fullback deserves any grief if he decides to move to Spain.
Fenway Sports Group have done a mostly brilliant job as Liverpool owners but there have been several occasions where they have faced the wrath of supporters over poor decisions.
They face potentially the biggest backlash of their reign as owners of the club this summer if they cannot extend contracts for at least two of the three big contract concerns. Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are widely expected to extend but Alexander-Arnold seems closer to joining Real Madrid than he is to staying on Merseyside.
Until this point, there has been precious little to encourage supporters that he will put pen to paper on a new deal.
Owen moved to Real Madrid in 2004 and ever since, his reputation with supporters has been muddied. Of course, it got a lot worse when he decided to join Manchester United five years later.
Yet, he doesn’t think there should be much backlash for Trent if he leaves.
“Trent knows that he is going to win trophies, but it’s about whether he wants to go and live in a new country with other great players and have great weather, eat great food and speak a different language,” Owen said via the Liverpool Echo.
“You’d probably say Real Madrid on league titles as there is less competition, but you’d probably say Liverpool are the better team as things stand.
“My gut feeling is that he will go because otherwise why would it be getting so late in the day to arrange a new contract?
“He will always have that Liver bird ingrained in his heart just like I did, just like [Steve] McManaman did, just like Jamie Carragher and Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard.
“Once you’ve been at the club for so long and come through the ranks your feelings will never change but he’s got a life to live and maybe he wants a change.
“But whether he does or not, my view on him won’t be tainted one way or the other and it shouldn’t for anybody else either.”
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