'I left Liverpool to move to Spain like Trent Alexander-Arnold

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Trent Alexander-Arnold has been warned of the pressure he’ll face at Real Madrid, with one Liverpool hero explaining how he might get “annihilated” by the Spanish media.

A move to the Bernabeu looks to just be a matter of time now for the right-back after he confirmed his decision to leave Anfield at the end of the season. Real has already approached Liverpool about signing Alexander-Arnold early, with a view to him playing at this summer’s Club World Cup.

That could result in the Reds still receiving a fee, with the two clubs trying to find a solution. Whatever the result, Alexander-Arnold looks certain to be wearing the famous white kit next season.

With that comes some pretty big expectations. With the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham already on board, Real will be looking to improve on a campaign which is on course to see them miss out on every domestic trophy, having also been knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Arsenal.

Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge knows all about the pressure Alexander-Arnold will face, having also swapped Merseyside for Spain when he joined Real Sociedad in 1989.

“I left Liverpool for different reasons,” Aldridge wrote in his column for the Liverpool Echo.

“I wanted a three-year contract and Kenny Dalglish said I wasn’t going to play that year. It was the last year of my contract and he was going to play with Peter Beardsley and Ian Rush.

(Image: 2025 Liverpool FC)

“I had to leave, I was gutted. I was absolutely sick. But I had to make the most of it, which I did. And I loved it in Spain.

“Trent’s now going the other way, choosing to go. It’s going to be massively affluent for him, his family, his agents. He’s making a new life for himself, he might stay there, he might live there for the rest of his life.

“It’s a great club, a massive club - like we are. But we’ve got to leave him to get on with it and just move on. We get on with what we’ve got to do and he gets on with what he’s got to do, we have to be realistic.”

Aldridge added: “We’ll bring in new players ourselves now to stop Real Madrid being better than us. One door closes and another one opens. It’s gone now, it’s done. Trent has made his decision. Good luck to him, let’s get on with it.

“But it will be interesting to see how he gets on there. I played in Spain for a couple of years. Every day, football papers come out. One bad game you’re going to get absolutely annihilated. It’s brutal.”

Touching upon what Alexander-Arnold will be leaving behind at Anfield, Aldridge said: “Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are absolutely adored for giving everything to Liverpool until they stopped playing football. That was something special to do and they did it.

“Trent won’t be regarded in that category now, that’s just how Liverpool fans are. We’ve very passionate and proud of the team. But Trent knows that, he’s not daft.”

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