The former high security jail closed more than 60 years ago

The former high security jail closed more than 60 years ago

The show has been called a ‘landmark series’.

The show has been called a ‘landmark series’.

When Trent Alexander-Arnold leaves Liverpool to join Real Madrid this summer, he will do so having won every major honour in football.

Winner’s medals for the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Charity Shield, Super Cup, and Club World Cup will be shipped from Merseyside to Madrid alongside the kind of knick-knacks and bric-a-brac the rest of us are used to sorting through when moving house.

Over the course of nine years since his senior debut, Alexander-Arnold has been a key component of one of the most successful teams in Liverpool’s illustrious history.

The England international has of course worked under stellar managers in that time and played alongside some of the world’s very best players, but an enormous role has undoubtedly been played by his combination of an immense level of technique scarcely shown by any full-back and his ability to make vital contributions in the most crucial moments.

When such a successful player leaves a football club after a long time, they are typically lauded and thanked for their contribution. And yet, Alexander-Arnold has been viewed by plenty of Liverpool supporters as a despicable traitor whose legacy now lies in tatters.

Why are some Liverpool fans so angry with Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Throughout the season, speculation over Alexander-Arnold’s future has been met with consternation and antipathy from a significant proportion of Liverpool’s supporter base. When the Reds drew with Manchester United at Anfield in January, shortly after a renewed series of claims that he was likely to move to Spain for free, he was met with a barrage of booing and name-calling from fans in the stadium almost immediately after kick-off and throughout the rest of the match.

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Now that his departure from Anfield has been confirmed and a free transfer exit to Carlo Ancelotti’s side looks imminent, demands that the 26-year-old be stripped of the vice captaincy, that he should not play for the club again before the end of the campaign, and that a mural of him near to Anfield should be painted over have become commonplace online.

Alexander-Arnold must shoulder plenty of the blame for the reaction himself. In the autumn he drew criticism for telling Sky Sports that he would rather win a Ballon d’Or than another major trophy with Liverpool.

Then in December, after scoring from outside the box away at West Ham, he celebrated by putting his hand to his ear and mimicking gossip. But the speculation he was seemingly mocking only existed because he was refusing to comment on his future in public, and was indeed negotiating his own exit from his boyhood club. A gesture that seemed bizarre enough at the time is now downright incomprehensible in hindsight.

Furthermore, there is a widespread belief in football that local, home-grown players owe a far greater deal of loyalty to their club than those transferred in from elsewhere. That Alexander-Arnold is leaving Liverpool, at a point in which they seem primed for further success under Arne Slot, and on a free transfer, is a significant factor behind the ire his decision is drawing.

Why might Alexander-Arnold feel leaving Liverpool is the right thing?

Of course, it is hard to rationalise the idea that a millionaire athlete who has accomplished everything with his team could possibly owe anything more to those who have revelled in those achievements for the best of a decade.

Surely it must be possible for such a player to earn the right to go and try their hand at something else, to choose to live a different life, after delivering a cabinet full of trophies and a swathe of stellar days out.

Though Liverpool are well set up to kick on under Slot’s stewardship, if Alexander-Arnold were to stay at Real Madrid for ten years, it would not be unreasonable to presume that – at a bare minimum – he would win something like five league titles and three Champions Leagues, given the rate at which Los Blancos have hoovered up trophies in the 21st century so far.

The counterargument to that is, that having been born and raised in West Derby, winning less with Liverpool should carry more weight than winning near-constantly with Real Madrid. At some point Alexander-Arnold has clearly decided that, despite his roots, he doesn’t buy that argument.

And as for the lack of transfer fee, Liverpool never paid one in the first place for a player who has outperformed all others in his position for the majority of his career so far, and so the idea that he now owes them one in return is illogical.

Alexander-Arnold seems to have felt the same. Four years ago, aged 22, he decided to sign only a four-year deal with Liverpool rather than committing for even longer. That was perhaps an indicator even then that he and those around him have always been planning to be able to move for free at age 26.

More generally, not enough British footballers are willing to try their hand at playing abroad, living in another culture, and testing themselves in a different context. That Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and now Alexander-Arnold have done so in recent years is perhaps an indication that horizons are broadening among this generation of players.

Is the reaction to Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid fair?

Football fandom is an inherently irrational pursuit. What a set of supporters would deem perfectly reasonable behaviour from a player at another club is so often deemed ludicrous and offensive when done by one of their own.

That is underscored by the fact that plenty of the same Liverpool supporters who are criticising Alexander-Arnold for walking out on the club he has supported since infancy now were imploring Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi to do exactly the same a year ago when the Reds were trying to buy him.

It may be juvenile and immature, but it is also the truth – football fans want everything their own way all the time. They aren’t overly concerned by logic and fairness. And if they don’t get what they want they are liable to respond with outlandish, melodramatic rhetoric, turning on those they once extolled as gods among men and kicking them to the kerb.

Alexander-Arnold is far from the first footballer to move on knowing the incredulous reaction the decision will bring about. By the end of his career, only he will know if he still believes it was the right thing to do.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When Trent Alexander-Arnold leaves Liverpool to join Real Madrid this summer, he will do so having won every major honour in football.

Winner’s medals for the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Charity Shield, Super Cup, and Club World Cup will be shipped from Merseyside to Madrid alongside the kind of knick-knacks and bric-a-brac the rest of us are used to sorting through when moving house.

Over the course of nine years since his senior debut, Alexander-Arnold has been a key component of one of the most successful teams in Liverpool’s illustrious history.

The England international has of course worked under stellar managers in that time and played alongside some of the world’s very best players, but an enormous role has undoubtedly been played by his combination of an immense level of technique scarcely shown by any full-back and his ability to make vital contributions in the most crucial moments.

When such a successful player leaves a football club after a long time, they are typically lauded and thanked for their contribution. And yet, Alexander-Arnold has been viewed by plenty of Liverpool supporters as a despicable traitor whose legacy now lies in tatters.

Why are some Liverpool fans so angry with Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Throughout the season, speculation over Alexander-Arnold’s future has been met with consternation and antipathy from a significant proportion of Liverpool’s supporter base. When the Reds drew with Manchester United at Anfield in January, shortly after a renewed series of claims that he was likely to move to Spain for free, he was met with a barrage of booing and name-calling from fans in the stadium almost immediately after kick-off and throughout the rest of the match.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video

Up Next

Now that his departure from Anfield has been confirmed and a free transfer exit to Carlo Ancelotti’s side looks imminent, demands that the 26-year-old be stripped of the vice captaincy, that he should not play for the club again before the end of the campaign, and that a mural of him near to Anfield should be painted over have become commonplace online.

Alexander-Arnold must shoulder plenty of the blame for the reaction himself. In the autumn he drew criticism for telling Sky Sports that he would rather win a Ballon d’Or than another major trophy with Liverpool.

Then in December, after scoring from outside the box away at West Ham, he celebrated by putting his hand to his ear and mimicking gossip. But the speculation he was seemingly mocking only existed because he was refusing to comment on his future in public, and was indeed negotiating his own exit from his boyhood club. A gesture that seemed bizarre enough at the time is now downright incomprehensible in hindsight.

Furthermore, there is a widespread belief in football that local, home-grown players owe a far greater deal of loyalty to their club than those transferred in from elsewhere. That Alexander-Arnold is leaving Liverpool, at a point in which they seem primed for further success under Arne Slot, and on a free transfer, is a significant factor behind the ire his decision is drawing.

Why might Alexander-Arnold feel leaving Liverpool is the right thing?

Of course, it is hard to rationalise the idea that a millionaire athlete who has accomplished everything with his team could possibly owe anything more to those who have revelled in those achievements for the best of a decade.

Surely it must be possible for such a player to earn the right to go and try their hand at something else, to choose to live a different life, after delivering a cabinet full of trophies and a swathe of stellar days out.

Though Liverpool are well set up to kick on under Slot’s stewardship, if Alexander-Arnold were to stay at Real Madrid for ten years, it would not be unreasonable to presume that – at a bare minimum – he would win something like five league titles and three Champions Leagues, given the rate at which Los Blancos have hoovered up trophies in the 21st century so far.

The counterargument to that is, that having been born and raised in West Derby, winning less with Liverpool should carry more weight than winning near-constantly with Real Madrid. At some point Alexander-Arnold has clearly decided that, despite his roots, he doesn’t buy that argument.

And as for the lack of transfer fee, Liverpool never paid one in the first place for a player who has outperformed all others in his position for the majority of his career so far, and so the idea that he now owes them one in return is illogical.

Alexander-Arnold seems to have felt the same. Four years ago, aged 22, he decided to sign only a four-year deal with Liverpool rather than committing for even longer. That was perhaps an indicator even then that he and those around him have always been planning to be able to move for free at age 26.

More generally, not enough British footballers are willing to try their hand at playing abroad, living in another culture, and testing themselves in a different context. That Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and now Alexander-Arnold have done so in recent years is perhaps an indication that horizons are broadening among this generation of players.

Is the reaction to Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid fair?

Football fandom is an inherently irrational pursuit. What a set of supporters would deem perfectly reasonable behaviour from a player at another club is so often deemed ludicrous and offensive when done by one of their own.

That is underscored by the fact that plenty of the same Liverpool supporters who are criticising Alexander-Arnold for walking out on the club he has supported since infancy now were imploring Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi to do exactly the same a year ago when the Reds were trying to buy him.

It may be juvenile and immature, but it is also the truth – football fans want everything their own way all the time. They aren’t overly concerned by logic and fairness. And if they don’t get what they want they are liable to respond with outlandish, melodramatic rhetoric, turning on those they once extolled as gods among men and kicking them to the kerb.

Alexander-Arnold is far from the first footballer to move on knowing the incredulous reaction the decision will bring about. By the end of his career, only he will know if he still believes it was the right thing to do.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Cable theft forced trains to stop in central Spain, upending the Monday commute for thousands of passengers.

Thieves wreaked havoc on the high-speed line between Madrid and Seville after stealing vital cable from the signalling system across four locations.

The theft happened late yesterday evening, affecting dozens of trains between Spain’s capital and Andalucia during peak return travel after the Labour Day weekend.

Thousands of passengers were eagerly waiting for updates after spending hours on the station floors and trying to get information from rail staff.

Footage shows frustrated passengers gathering at Madrid’s Atochat station today to try find out what was happening with their trains.

Renfe, the train operator, told passengers to not arrive too early to avoid further crowds.

One passenger posted on X that his train was scheduled to leave Sevilla shortly before 9pm yesterday.

Instead, the train arrived to Madrid at 6.3am today. He claimed they spent ’10 hours on a train that ran out of food and water after half an hour.’

A typical train journey takes between the cities usually takes just under three hours.

Alberto Valero, a tourist from Mexico, told the AP news agency he and his family had spent hours at Madrid station due to the issue.

He said: ‘We’re here with tourists from everywhere — France, Portugal.

‘Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.

Another traveller said at midnight today they had been travelling from Granada to Madrid – around a 260-mile journey – for more than six hours and were ‘still in progress.’

ADIF, the company owning Spain’s railway infrastructure, said on X the theft happened at four points on the line in Toledo.

It hoped services to resume from around 9.30am between Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Granada.

Today’s train chaos comes after life in Spain and Portugal was severely disrupted last week after massive power outages lasting for days.

At least five people were killed in the unprecedented blackout, which turned Madrid dark as the Spanish grid lost 60% of its power, with national emergency declared.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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