Trent Alexander-Arnold: Right-back leaves Liverpool a modern great but some fans will be hurt

Trent Alexander-Arnold's announcement that he is leaving Liverpool at the end of the season confirmed what had seemed an inevitability for months.

And even though his next destination was not mentioned in his emotional farewell video, it is an open secret that he will join his friend and England colleague Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid.

Alexander-Arnold deserves credit for clarifying his future now. He could have taken the easy way out and left Liverpool supporters hanging until after the Premier League title victory parade around the city on 26 May.

Instead, the 26-year-old has made his decision public with two home games left - the first against Arsenal, and the second on the final day against Crystal Palace, when Liverpool will lift the trophy to celebrate their 20th English league title.

It will leave him at the mercies of many Liverpool supporters who are baffled that the player they celebrate in song as "the Scouser in our team" has decided to leave his boyhood club on a free transfer.

Alexander-Arnold's celebration of his late winner at Leicester City in April, when he ripped off his red shirt and hoisted it on a corner flag in front of Liverpool's supporters at the King Power Stadium, prompted faint hope that he might find it impossible to leave the club he has called home for 20 years.

The truth hit home when he once more refused to discuss his future during the celebrations of that win.

He was leaving Liverpool and no amount of emotional pull on the heartstrings would change his mind.

Those emotions will be mixed in the stands and on the pitch when Alexander-Arnold plays his final game at Anfield on 25 May – but his leaving as a title winner might just ease the disappointment, and in some cases anger and bemusement, that many Liverpool followers will be feeling.

Liverpool's fans have also have also been questioning the timing of Alexander-Arnold's decision.

He leaves with Liverpool on a title high and well placed to challenge for the biggest domestic and European trophies for years to come, while Real Madrid looked like a team in need of renewal when they were thrashed 5-1 by Arsenal over two legs in the Champions League quarter-final.

Click here to read article