Trent Alexander-Arnold is playing a dangerous game - here's how he can leave Liverpool and preserve the legacy he claims to value so highly, writes IAN HERBERT

It must be said that Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t the first Liverpool player to feel the wrath of his own supporters when he encountered howls of derision at Anfield on Sunday.

Just ask Alan Kennedy and Phil Neal, legends who never left, about the groans that would come down from the Kemlyn Road Stand of a Saturday afternoon if they weren’t at their best. The old place has always had exacting standards.

But that doesn’t remove some cold, hard truths about what happens next if, as seems likely, Alexander-Arnold does not sign a new contract and takes his leave of Anfield. Liverpool will lose some of its love for him. He won’t be remembered as he might have been. A legacy will have been tarnished. It will hurt.

Liverpool is the kind of city which makes it different for local players. A place where it’s ‘us against the world’, where they look after their own, cherish their homegrown stars, and – because it’s supposed to be reciprocal – where the process of leaving, if not handled with subtlety and thought, will always seem like a betrayal.

When Steven Gerrard was in the throes of deciding whether to leave for Chelsea in 2004 – a process of such angst that he poured paracetamol down his throat and called a family friend who was a doctor to help calm him down – he sat dazed at home watching fans burn an old GERRARD 17 jersey near the Shankly Gates. And he hadn’t remotely courted that team. Gerrard revealed years later that he had asked himself: ‘Could I look myself in the mirror again? Leaving would seem like a betrayal.’

Michael Owen felt the angst, too. He tells of driving to the city’s John Lennon Airport crying his eyes out and asking himself, ‘What have you done?’ after signing for Real Madrid in 2004, having come to a loose arrangement with chief executive Rick Parry that he would be back in a season or so – just like Ian Rush, who Liverpool decided to sell to Juventus in 1986. ‘I never dreamed of leaving Liverpool. I never asked for Real Madrid to come in for me and I never touted myself around,’ Owen would later reflect.

Trent Alexander-Arnold faced the fury of some Liverpool fans against Man United on Sunday

If Alexander-Arnold does not sign a new contract, Liverpool will lose some of its love for him

Steven Gerrard thought leaving would be 'a betrayal' when he weighed up joining Chelsea

It was never the same again between him and Liverpool. Nor for Steve McManaman, who single-handedly won two cup finals for the club, yet is barely remembered for it because of the way he also left Anfield for Real Madrid, in 1999.

The individual with the deepest perspective on all of this is Jamie Carragher, who after watching those two friends of his become estranged from Liverpool would hear Gerrard’s private agonies about staying or going, when they roomed together. ‘Remember McManaman,’ he would tell him. ‘You might go and win something but in Liverpool nobody will be a***d about it.’

Carragher relates this in an interview for the book Ring of Fire, author Simon Hughes’ excellent telling of the Liverpool story of the early 2000s, qualifying it with the consideration which Alexander-Arnold is no doubt weighing now.

‘On the flip side, if you stay too long, you get people saying, “You’re s***e. You’re finished” as soon as you hit 30 and have a few bad games,’ he told Gerrard.

So, it’s not easy ground for this 26-year-old who has been with Liverpool since the age of six. But what Alexander-Arnold does have within his control is how he handles his exit – and there’s scant evidence so far that he realises that.

To date, he’s gone in for cryptic messaging, in the thoroughly depressing modern way. Informing a broadcaster that he would rather win a Ballon d’Or than another Champions League. Celebrating a goal at West Ham with a 'chat' gesture which seemed to mock the discussion of his future. It doesn’t cohere with that message on the mural of him near Anfield – 'I’m just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dream has come true’ – and it’s a dangerous game he plays. Fine if Liverpool continue rattling off wins. Less so, if not.

Some have suggested since Sunday that the fans who issued negative sentiments towards him were in the wrong. Nonsense, of course. No player can expect a free pass at Anfield, whatever achievements have gone before. Any Liverpool player who has seemed less committed than they should has heard about it from their own down the years.

Michael Owen cried on route to the airport after leaving Liverpool to sign for Real Madrid

Alexander-Arnold seemed to mock the discussion of his future when celebrating a goal

His cryptic messaging does not fit with the message written on his Liverpool mural

Signing a new deal with a realistic buy-out clause could be a route to help preserve his legacy

There’s a route through all this. A way of leaving Liverpool which would not be inharmonious. Sign a new deal with a realistic buy-out clause, so that when Real Madrid come back again this summer, Liverpool will take something away to reinvest.

In an interview with the Men in Blazers podcast on December 19, Alexander-Arnold said that ultimate personal ambition was to leave ‘a legacy,’ explaining that this meant ‘being spoken about in highest regard, especially after I’ve finished… as one of the best right backs, or the best right back.’

Staying put surely offers the greatest guarantee of legacy, as Sir Kenny Dalglish, whose name is now emblazoned across the Kemlyn Road Stand, can attest.

‘I never fancied going abroad simply because I was afraid,’ Dalglish related years after retiring. He wasn’t sure he’d grasp the language or master the dressing-room banter in Spain or Italy, he said, so stayed put and had no regrets. It was a different world back then.

David Moyes OBE should get more love

There was a rich irony in David Moyes being appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours list, precisely as the folly of West Ham replacing him with dismal Julen Lopetegui was reaching its optimal point.

Moyes says he’s not done yet, though doesn’t want another role fighting relegation.

That wouldn’t seem to preclude the idea of a return to Everton, a club now reduced to eking out a point per game, with eight blanks in the last ten, and struggling against any team who let them have the ball.

Don’t hold your breath, though. The lack of appreciation of Moyes him is one of the great managerial mysteries.

David Moyes was appointed an OBE as the folly of West Ham replacing him became clear

The continued lack of appreciation of Moyes him is one of the great managerial mysteries

International cricket risks drowning in its own greed

More evidence arrives of international cricket drowning in its own greed, with proposals for a two-tier Test cricket system which will mean the Ashes being contested twice every three years – and being diminished as a spectacle because of it.

Those who will inevitably suggest that the market must dictate - and that England, India and Australia are right to put money-spinning fixtures between each other over an expansion of its frontiers – might wish to consider the work Ireland has done.

That country has vastly increased turnover and the quality of its game. The Big Three cartel has barely wanted to know.

The Ashes would be diminished as a spectacle if it is contested twice every three years

The Big Three - including Australia and India - should consider the work Ireland have done

New BBC doc brings back tragic memories

The BBC documentary series on the July 2005 London bombings rekindles memories for me of reporting on those events for The Independent from the Holbeck district of the Leeds, near Elland Road, where three of the suicide bombers were from.

Leeds United had been involved in some vital community work at the time, amid controversy about the merger of a local, largely white, school with its predominantly Asian neighbour.

The cross-curriculum project centred on the life of Albert Johanneson, a black footballer from South Africa who played for Leeds but who died in poverty and obscurity. It was a huge success.

Four days before the school merger took place, the bombs went off, putting Leeds back to square one. One of the myriad tragedies of those dark days.

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