Liverpool star Alexander-Arnold makes shock £80m offer to buy Ligue 1 club with owner 'furious'

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is looking to take over Ligue 1 club Nantes in a surprise move, according to reports in France.

The England international has been linked with a move away from Anfield in the summer with his contract up at the end of the season.

There has been speculation that La Liga giants Real Madrid might look to bring him to the Bernabeu on a free transfer but it looks like Alexander-Arnold could be doing some business of his own soon enough.

French newspaper L’Equipe (via Get Football News France) claim that Alexander-Arnold ‘wants to become the owner of Nantes’ in France ‘through an English investment fund managed by his father’.

They claim Kylian Mbappe is ‘inspiring’ footballers to take a step into club ownership after the Real Madrid attacker recently bought 80 per cent of Ligue 2 outfit Stade Malherbe Caen.

And Mbappe ‘could soon see one of his foreign colleagues imitate him’ with Liverpool defender Alexander-Arnold – who is already a minority shareholder in French Formula 1 team, Alpine F1 Team – keen on buying Nantes after submitting a €100m (£80m) offer.

French businessman Waldemar Kita, who has owned Nantes since 2007, has apparently grown ‘tired of the sporting and financial struggles encountered by the Loire-Atlantique side’.

As well as proving to be an unpopular figure in recent years, Kita’s ‘failure to build a new privately owned stadium and the TV rights deal debacle only confirmed his intention to, at least, entertain the club’s sale’.

The Nantes owner is ‘furious’ at the media leak of all this information and the report adds:

‘Kita reportedly met the Arnolds via videoconference last summer before meeting them in person, in Geneva, those last few days. The takeover bid reportedly amounts to €100m, including a straight €80m plus a seller credit of €20m accompanied by various bonuses of up to €40m. A third meeting reportedly occurred this Thursday in London between the interested parties.’

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Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool have started the new season in positive style with four wins from five in all competitions after their 3-1 win over AC Milan in the San Siro on Tuesday.

Gary Neville, who has previously criticised the Liverpool star’s defending, revealed recently why he was stunned during a recent interview with Alexander-Arnold.

Neville said on the Stick To Football podcast: “I interviewed him for two or three hours last season. Roy, honestly, I was stunned.”

“Honestly no I was mesmerised by, I was mesmerised by the fact that, you know, you have sort of, you look at someone, you think he’s a brilliant player, but then you look at him, I’ve been critical of him defensively, you’ve been critical of him.

“You’ve said he shouldn’t play in midfield. I could not believe how much he knew about football historically in the last 20, 25 years, and how many games he watched and how much into it he was.

“And then maybe I shouldn’t be surprised but I couldn’t believe it. He was asking loads of questions, he was dead inquisitive.”

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