Having already convinced Liverpool academy right back Trent Alexander-Arnold to run down his contract and join them on a free, with a courtship believed to go back at least two seasons now, Real Madrid now want the Reds to release the player before the official end of his Liverpool contract.
Also, they want them to do it for free.
That’s the latest transfer chatter from The Telegraph, who reliably report that despite previous rumours Madrid were willing to offer Liverpool around €1M to release Alexander-Arnold before the June 30th expiry of his contract, Los Blancos actually want Liverpool to just give him to them.
Madrid are set to take part in FIFA’s expanded 32-team Club World Cup, set to play out over a month from the United States this summer and kicking off on June 14th and end on July 13th.
Player contracts in the top European leagues mostly expire on June 30th, setting up the potential for new signings like Alexander-Arnold to not be available—and, alternately, for players at Club World Cup participating cubs whose deals are expiring, for them to expire mid-tournament.
Whether this represents a gross oversight on the part of FIFA or simply reflects the far more likely alternative that FIFA executives don’t care about the players and only care about lining their own pockets is another question, though we don’t think one that on balance is all that hard to answer.
From Liverpool’s point of view, on the other hand, it’s hard to see exactly why they should do Madrid this favour, and we can only hope they stick to their guns and tell the entitled Spanish giants they can pay up or wait for June 30th to receive their new shiny toy.