Liverpool will SPLIT fans with controversial Trent Alexander-Arnold decision

Liverpool are increasingly falling at risk of losing Trent Alexander-Arnold this season.

We are now just days away from the right-back being able to negotiate with other clubs about his future.

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For much of this season, Trent has looked to keep speculation about his contract situation behind the scenes, opting for a "none of this will play out in public" approach. However, he did seem to make a statement with his celebration against West Ham after scoring at the weekend.

However, Spanish newspaper MARCA claims that the player has "already told Liverpool's directors that his desire is to play for Real Madrid."

This has been long considered to be the destination for Liverpool's academy starlet, and fans have been concerned for a long time that the club's best homegrown asset for decades will be allowed to go to a rival for free.

Now that it looks likely to happen, we need to consider how we proceed with the player as the team tries to navigate the second half of the season in search of silverware.

Liverpool stuck between a rock and a hard place

The team needs Trent in it for it to perform at its best. Conor Bradley has had a number of special performances as a right-back when he was given a chance, but no player can quite replicate what England International is capable of.

His creative vision to deliver pin-point long balls and crosses into the forwards is second to none and his absence in the long-term, should the MARCA report prove to be true, will be enormous.

But for now, he will remain on Merseyside for the remainder of the season, and Liverpool will want to use him. However, many fans have been left feeling sour about Trent's 'decision', and so the club will have to make an extremely controversial call.

Play him for the remainder of the season, because his involvement in the side is paramount to the team's success, but have fans calling him 'Judas' for agreeing to abandon the team next season.

Or, leave him on the bench for the majority of the campaign, despite it being to the team's detriment in searching for trophies this season, to plan for the future by giving Bradley the club's long-term backing at right-back.

Arne Slot will make the decision that best suits his team's success, as he has done with all three of the players at risk of leaving because their contracts are set to expire - Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk alongside Trent.

But if the team starts facing abuse from fans who are left bitter about the situation that the club has allowed itself to fall into, then the pressure could easily crank up, leading to a much more negative feeling at Liverpool.

Despite knowing that personnel in the team could potentially move on this season, the players and Slot have stuck to their task and delivered a remarkable run of form.

Having lost one match all season, they are successfully into the Last 16 of the Champions League, leading the Premier League by six points with a game in hand on second, and they have a two-legged EFL Cup semi-final to play in January.

The season many people were dreading, after Jurgen Klopp left in the last campaign, has so far turned out to be an incredibly special one. If the players can continue to be as professional as they have been all season, then success is only around the corner.

But now that Trent's 'decision' has been made, there will be a number of Liverpool fans left with a poor aftertaste, regardless of what the club achieves this season.

Where the club goes from here is anyone's guess, but the consequences of its eventual decision will be enormous.

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