The £85m Liverpool transfer that could spark summer window chaos

It’s unthinkable. Surely. In a world where the one-club man has gone all but extinct, there are still some names who you simply cannot imagine playing for anybody but their boyhood team. Trent Alexander-Arnold falls firmly into that category.

And yet, here we are, reading reports that, not only are Real Madrid entertaining the notion of swooping for the right-back, but Liverpool are possibly entertaining the notion of letting them. The situation is thus; Alexander-Arnold has around a year left on his current contract at Anfield, and as yet, talks have not been held over a prospective extension. That’s not to say that negotiations won’t be held, of course, but at the time of writing, nothing.

It is in this context that Real, pesky poachers as they are, are weighing up a potential bid to lure the England international to La Liga. Indeed, talkSPORT even suggest that the presence of Jude Bellingham in the Spanish capital could help to convince Alexander-Arnold into hankering after a change of scene; the two are understood to be good friends, and have seen their bond strengthen greatly over the course of Euro 2024.

What’s more, if fanciful reports from Spanish outlet El Nacional are to be believed, the Reds might even be open to the idea of bundling Trent into the back of an Uber headed for Liverpool John Lennon. They claim that Arne Slot’s side could look to use the full-back as a makeweight in a prospective swap deal involving Brazilian forward Rodrygo. The arrival of Kylian Mbappe in Madrid has seemingly shoved a nose or two out of joint, and as such, there is every possibility that the European champions could offload a big name attacker to accommodate their shiniest new play thing.

Ordinarily, Real would be demanding somewhere in the region of £85 million for Rodrygo, but were Alexander-Arnold to scuttle off in the opposite direction, that fee would presumably become negligible, or entirely non-existent.

Now, on paper, all of this makes a lot of sense. Real need a long-term replacement for ageing wind-up merchant Dani Carvajal, while Liverpool could ideally use an eventual successor to Mo Salah, who - like Trent - is out of contract on Merseyside next year, and who has been frequently touted for a departure in recent transfer windows. To that end, some kind of mutually-beneficial arrangement would, in typical circumstances, be welcomed.

But this is Alexander-Arnold we’re talking about; the best creative full-back in the Premier League, Liverpool’s vice-captain, and a quintessential modern talisman of the Kop. Could he really be offered up as cannon fodder in something as casual as a swap deal? And how would the Reds go about replacing him? Perhaps Conor Bradley is ready to assume the mantle, and perhaps he is not. Either way, this feels like something akin to blasphemy.

Nevertheless, the speculation will trundle on until Trent leaves or he pens a contract extension. If he does opt for the former course of action, this may well prove to be the most shocking transfer of the window.