‘I could do with one of those contracts!’ quips John Barnes when asked about Liverpool’s expiring trio. Couldn’t we all?
Football has changed since 1987, when he joined the Reds and became Britain’s highest-paid player on £10,000 per week. Plenty has stayed the same in recent years, though, including the tightrope walked by Liverpool’s local lads done good.
Yes, adulation from the Kop beckons, chants in your name, murals, legendary status. But you also risk the wrath of some followers if there’s a chance of you leaving.
Just ask Trent Alexander-Arnold, like Steven Gerrard and Steve McManaman before him. Earlier this month, after an off-day against Manchester United, the lad from West Derby who has given 20 years of dedication to the Reds faced a torrent of abuse. He ‘could not give a f***’ and must be ‘taken out of the team,’ according to some philosophers on X. All of this in the face of a contract saga and flirtation from Real Madrid, of course.
Curtis Jones has faced similar vitriol this week for daring to give a cautious and balanced explanation for why he felt Eden Hazard, one of his childhood role models, was ‘better’ than Mohamed Salah. He was branded a ‘disgrace’ and warned his ‘poor judgement’ could derail the team’s title chase and jeopardise the Egyptian’s contract negotiations.
We’ll address that in due course, but it’s the situations of Alexander-Arnold, Salah, and Virgil van Dijk which are the overriding threats in an otherwise serene season. Some point fingers at the club for not tying them down sooner, others at the players for perceived greed or discontentment. Barnes takes a firmly pragmatic view, if slightly pessimistic.
John Barnes talks to Mail Sport about Liverpool’s almost out-of-contract trio and abuse towards Curtis Jones
Trent Alexander-Arnold faced strong criticism from some supporters after the draw with Manchester United earlier this month
Barnes believes all the power rests with the players and that Liverpool have done all they can
‘It’s a very simple conundrum. Players these days have all the power. Clubs can do nothing about it. What I demand, and what fans should demand from players, is exactly what these three have done: while they are contracted to Liverpool, they give 100 per cent,’ Barnes tells Mail Sport from LiveScore’s Live Fan Event at Long Shot Bar in Liverpool.
‘With Mo, the club cannot compete financially with the Saudis so it’s not a question of money as far as I am concerned. With Virgil I think that’s the easiest one to do. I think Virgil will stay. With Trent, he may decide he wants to try a new culture, a new country, a new language, he’s been here for long enough.
‘The club can do nothing to make them stay. The club are putting everything in place from a footballing perspective – they’re top of the Champions League, they’re the best team in the country, they’re the best team in the world.
‘The club will offer them what they can offer them, they’re not going to say, “we’ll try and get you on the cheap.” It’s up to the players whether they want to stay or not and the club can do nothing about it. So, I think fans have to stop blaming clubs when players decide to go.’
In these situations, fact is hard to separate from fiction. On January 15, Spanish outlet Relevo claimed that Madrid had given up on trying to sign Alexander-Arnold this month. A day later, Marca said it was a done deal.
Jamie Carragher had an interesting theory after the 2-2 draw with United. He suggested that Alexander-Arnold or his agent had told Madrid to bid for him. In his eyes, Madrid wouldn’t make an offer without some assurance he was at least interested. Barnes disagrees that the right back would directly invite an offer.
‘I doubt that very much. That would make no sense whatsoever,’ he says.
‘I don’t think Trent would have said to make a bid because that doesn’t do Trent any favours whatsoever.
Barnes disagrees with Jamie Carragher’s suggestion that Alexander-Arnold would have invited Madrid to make an offer
Liverpool’s promise on the pitch and an adoring fanbase are two compelling reasons to stay
Perhaps the 2-0 win over Real Madrid in November signalled a changing of the tide between the two clubs
‘Why would Trent want the situation to be unsettled when he’s going for the league, staying until the end of the year, and knows this is going to create waves? I can understand from Real Madrid’s point of view why they did it, but I don’t think that Trent would have been party to that at all.’
The allure of the Spanish giants is a bug English clubs find hard to shake off. As Jude Bellingham put it: ‘When Real Madrid come knocking, the whole house shakes.’
Liverpool have faced the heartbreak many times with Los Blancos and Barcelona: McManaman, Michael Owen, and Xabi Alonso to the capital club; Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho, and Javier Mascherano to their Catalan rivals.
The 2-0 win over Madrid on a blistering night in November felt different, though. It felt authoritative. Conor Bradley kept Kylian Mbappe so silent he may as well have been mummified. One crunching slide tackle on the Frenchman had fans off their seats.
Liverpool had lost seven and drawn one of their previous eight games against Carlo Ancelotti’s side, but bossed them at the Arne Slot Penitentiary. It felt a significant turning point, and one which Barnes hopes will prove persuasive to Alexander-Arnold, a man who has declared his Ballon d’Or ambitions.
‘He’s got a better chance of winning the Ballon d’Or at Liverpool than at Real Madrid,’ he says.
‘If you look at the superstars at Real Madrid, Trent isn’t going to go there to be an Mbappe, or a Vinicius Junior, to be a Bellingham. He’d be going there to be the right7 back. And yes, he’d be an important player, but I don’t think the way the team plays is going to necessarily be suited to what Trent wants.
‘And I think a lot of Liverpool players have found that – you look at (Georginio) Wijnaldum, (Roberto) Firmino, (Jordan) Henderson. All of them who have left have not done as well. From a football perspective, there’s not another club that will suit Trent more than Liverpool – but that’s not necessarily enough to make him stay.
Madrid have dominated the Ballon d’Or in recent years, but Barnes thinks Alexander-Arnold would have more chance of winning it if he stayed at Liverpool
He believes the Spanish team’s attacking talents would take the shine away from him
‘If Real Madrid don’t win the league or the Champions League, how are you going to win the Ballon d’Or? You don’t win the Ballon d’Or just because you’re at Real Madrid. Are you going to win the Ballon d’Or ahead of Bellingham, ahead of Vinicius Junior? You’re the right back at Real Madrid, rather than being the player at Liverpool who everybody is talking about.’
At maximum, Liverpool have 32 games left this season, which admittedly is almost a full-length campaign for some clubs. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not long left to treasure a trio who have played a cumulative 1,018 games for them. Quite a legacy.
On that note, some fans this week felt that Jones had disrespected Salah’s legacy. In a rather light-hearted interview with Rio Ferdinand on TNT Sports, the midfielder argued that Hazard was the better footballer who he would pay to watch, but that he’d rather have Salah in his team for match-winning effect.
It was refreshing to hear a footballer be so honest, even on such a surface-level topic. In the modern internet climate, speech is a tripwire where players can find the most anodyne of comments blown out of proportion.
Any suggestions it would cause a rift were duly banished when Jones assisted Salah during midweek against Lille and the pair celebrated together. Even then, he copped flak for copying the Egyptian’s celebration, sitting on the advertising hoardings with his arms stretched wide.
‘I think it’s just making a mountain out of a molehill,’ says Barnes of the reaction to Jones’ comments.
‘He’s very honest in his assessment. Of course we’re very tribal when it comes to football, whether you’re Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United. Should he then say that Salah is better than Messi or Ronaldo or Pele or anybody like that?
‘I’m not interested. Curtis is a fantastic player and a great servant for the club. He’s a local boy, loves the club, and the fact that he said that he thinks Eden Hazard is better than Mo Salah has no bearing on anything, to be honest with you.
The abuse towards Curtis Jones is ‘making a mountain out of a molehill,’ says Barnes
Fans reacted strongly after Jones claimed that Eden Hazard was a ‘better’ player than Salah
Jones clarified that he thought Salah was more of a match-winner than the ex-Chelsea star
‘It’s not just in modern football, it’s for all people in the public eye. No matter what you say, the keyboard warriors are going to come on and give you stick. That is why players can’t be honest.
‘If people want players to come out and be more open, they have to stop abusing them when they are open, particularly over something as innocent as this.
‘I completely emphasise with all footballers now. When I was playing you were able to go out and buy a drink ad do whatever you wanted, whereas now you’re just being judged so harshly by everybody, so I understand why players are so reticent to be honest or open.
‘I love Jack Grealish. I love Cole Palmer. The problem Cole Palmer may have is that if all of a sudden he starts not playing well, and he is the way he is, he’s going to start getting stick.
‘What he should be judged on is football and the way you are as a person. Curtis is a fantastic young man.’
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