Real Madrid's STAGGERING offer to Trent Alexander-Arnold

Liverpool are facing a contract crisis over three of their star players.

Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all out of contract in summer 2025 and have been entitled to talk to overseas teams about a pre-contract agreement since January 1.

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Salah and Van Dijk have been increasingly linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League where it appears Al Hilal are pulling out all the stops to complete a sensational double deal.

While Liverpool remain hopeful of keeping all three at the club for a while longer, they might well be getting used to the idea that Alexander-Arnold in particular might not be around forever.

The month kicked off with news that Real Madrid had attempted to open talks over a transfer but the Reds immediately shut down any potential deal.

The would rather take their chance to convince Trent that his future lies on Merseyside, even if Madrid ultimately get the chance to add him for free at the end of the season.

Liverpool are of course powerless to prevent those negotiations from taking place between Trent’s camp and the power-brokers at Madrid.

Trent to cost '€18m to €20m'

Those in charge at the Bernabeu are expecting to make Trent the latest in a long line of high-profile free transfers - a sequence which has seen David Alaba, Antonio Rudiger and Kylian Mbappe arrive at the club.

With Madrid not having to pay a transfer fee, they are in a position to hand eye-watering amounts to their potential recruitments in signing-on fees and bonuses.

Such an approach could leave Liverpool frustrated as they simply cannot compete with the sums Madrid are reportedly offering. Although Trent has been earning £180,000 per week for Liverpool, there is no comparison to what he could earn with Los Blancos when the signing-on fee is factored in.

Ramon Alvarez de Mon, a Madrid-based journalist and club member, claims that a deal is ALREADY done for Trent to join the club on a free transfer. Moreover he also suggests the initial up-front costs of the ‘free’ transfer have reached between €18m and €20m.

That is a sum estimated to be around twice Trent’s annual Liverpool salary.

“Real Madrid have already signed Arnold for next season,” he wrote on X. “The cost of the operation is around 18-20 million taking into account the signing bonus and commissions. He will not arrive in January. Liverpool are not considering it.”

And so it would appear Liverpool will have to face the reality of losing Trent to Madrid with the England man set to pocket a fortune along the way.

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