Liverpool manager Arne Slot has insisted his focus remains solely on on-field events in the wake of news of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s alleged agreement to join Real Madrid on a free transfer in the summer.
It was reported late last month that Alexander-Arnold, whose contract expires at the end of the season, had agreed terms with long-term admirers Madrid to leave his boyhood club – a revelation which sparked significant frustration among Liverpool fans.
The news comes as the first major bombshell of Slot’s tenure, but the boss insisted his priorities remain on guiding the team to results on the pitch and helping Alexander-Arnold recover from the injury that he suffered against Paris Saint-Germain before the international break.
“His situation is unfortunately that he is injured,” Slot said. “Otherwise people would have spoken that he had one or two brilliant performances for the England team.
“But he is injured and for him that means he is fully focused on his recovery. For us it means we will try to help him to be back as soon as he can.
“And for the rest, for eight months it went a bit up and down with talks about him, Virgil [van Dijk] or Mo [Salah], but we have never been focused on those talks. We have always been focused on what we have to do, and for Virgil and Mo that is trying to win the Merseyside derby and for Trent it is trying to be fit as soon as he can.
“It is a situation that is there for eight or nine months now and I think all these three players have performed so well under these circumstances so it doesn’t affect me at all.”
In the aftermath of the news, it was reported that Slot has already been speaking with Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong, who has long been touted as a the preferred replacement for Alexander-Arnold if he was to leave this summer.
