Sleepless in Lisbon (Trent: Part 2)

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Liverpool Football Club already takes up 90% of my waking thoughts. When I went to sleep tonight I didn’t expect to be woken up at 2:30am with thoughts of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

So I guess this is part 2 to the Trent article I did last week, if only to get it out of my head and go back to fuggin’ sleep!

Why is it bothering me so much? I think that’s a multi-faceted answer, beginning with that I like to consider myself to be a pretty grounded, reasonably-minded, can-take-a-step-back-and-see-the-bigger-picture type of guy, and most of the time and in most situations disassociate myself emotionally, and when an issue that should be as much of a non-issue as a Football player leaving his club having fulfilled his contract is invading my sleep then I have to self-evaluate.

I have a number of concerns, so let me try and break it down. 1, I’m scared. This is for two reasons:

A-ly: The last 4 games and the parade, starting with Arsenal on Sunday. I’m worried that this is going to take the shine off of the FACT that we have now indisputably reclaimed our spot at the top of the English Footballing League’s tree by winning our 20th Title. That it will fracture the fanbase. I don’t want his song sung by one section of fans, only to be followed by a chorus of angry boos seconds later in protest, or vice versa. And not that I give a sugary-shite what the media will say, but I do care about the reputation of Scousers, and in logical conclusion Liverpool fans too. God knows, we have already suffered our fair share of accusations and smears to our collective character.

It only takes one dickhead who can’t hold his water, and all those old stereotypes and accusations will come flooding out of the woodwork, to use a mixed metaphor that might give United fans and Evertonians nightmares (their respective stadium and recent flooding episodes - christ do I have to explain myself every time?).

There’s a passion amongst this crowd that I don’t think you’ll find in many other walks of life, nevermind other fanbases, and it’s a huge reason why people love and are attracted to this club, both fanwise and other wise, which comes from Football being the only escape in the lives of our working class forefathers, only to be passed down epigenetically since then.

Passion has a darkside though. It's why the French recognise crimes of passion in a court of law, or why Anakin Skywalker donned a black mask, developed asthma and took it out on the rest of the galaxy. One dickhead, and I loathe even calling him a dickhead, rather just one person that is unable to bottle up those valid emotions for a couple of more weeks.

When it comes to Trent, there should be a universal policy of indifference. No cheering, no boos, or it could get ugly and ruin what has been an amazing season.

Quick aside: three clubs doing diddly-squat in the league have just made it into two European finals. Cack league innit!

B-ly: Because I watched an episode of The Redmen TV Originals recently, and it was highlighted by the panel something that hadn’t occurred to me until it was pointed out on that show.The likelihood (and obviously we don’t know cos we’re not in the mind of Trent or Florentino Perez) that the reason this information has come to light now, and not post-celebrations is that Real Madrid want Trent at the Club World Cup.

If true (and if we employ Occam's razor it’s a friggin’ nap) then it means John Henry, FSG and Liverpool Football Club have been played like Rachmanifnoff by Trent’s camp and the Real Madrid hierarchy. I fear that FSG will try to be the bigger man here, and allow Trent to take part in the competition, and leave the club early for a ‘nominal’ fee. What's a nominal fee? If we’re optimistic then realistically, that’s probably a month of Trent’s wages and what, hopefully 5 million of your English pounds?

While six million quid in every day terms is a huge sum, enough to last your average working frugal northern man a couple of lifetimes. It doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the crazy world of Football. It’ll pay Mo’s wages for maybe 4 months, or get us one of Milos Kerkez’s arms, while the wider implications of accepting Real Madrid’s soap-in-the-shower-dropping antics is far more worrying.

We’re at the dawn of what could be a monumental time to be a Liverpool fan. We’ve just won the league, and amongst our ranks we have a plethora of amazing talent. Talent that could be coveted by the likes of Madrid or Barcelona. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Perez having bent us over with Alexander-Arnold, that he’ll be back sending bunches of Tulips to Ryan Gravenberch or whispering sweet ideas of Ballon D’ors into Alexis Mac Allister’s lughole.

Nah, what happens next sets a precedent and if a born and bred Scouser can run down his contract and leave on a free,then what stops a player that has no emotional affiliation with the club? And what message does it give to Madrid? This entire situation reeks of someone stealing your girlfriend, telling you they're taking them to Paris for the weekend, and asking you to pay for the flights. Is that something you’d do? Because I know I wouldn’t, and neither should FSG.

Is it petty to keep a player to the last second of his contract, when they’ve purposely run it down so you can’t get any money for them? Maybe, but it's justifiable pettiness. Trent was entitled legally to run down his contract, but he chose to make the last few weeks about him, and not about our 20th title win, and as such Liverpool Football Club are perfectly entitled to force him to see his contract out.

C-ly: The Bosman ruling needs an overhaul. The whole point of this legal precedent was so that a Football Club wasn’t able to derail a player’s career by holding them to ransom, by demanding a fee, allowing freedom of movement around the EU, even after their contract had expired. A logical, and fair rule. One might even ask how this was even needed. How could a club justify keeping hold of a player after the expiration of their contract? Simple answer, they couldn’t, which is why the law passed.

However, the law wasn’t created to facilitate the likes of Real Madrid, a club that isn’t short of a bob or two, raiding other clubs for free. When young player’s are poached by larger clubs we have a tribunal that decides on the fee that the poaching club has to pay. Doesn’t it make sense that this should apply to players at the very top of their game?

I am aware that at this point I may be coming across a little bitter, Liverpool have been the beneficiaries of some brilliant free transfers, Gary Mac, James Milner and Marcus Babbel immediately spring to mind. We may even benefit from the ruling in the summer with Kevin De Bruyne reportedly being a target for the reds on a free. The key difference here, being that Manchester City have not offered him a new one.

I’m not sure how the Bosman ruling can be revamped, but it feels like something needs to be done to plug this loophole of getting a recognised world class talent, entering the prime of his career on a free transfer. Maybe the poaching team have to at least match the contract terms being offered by the team that currently plays for, then a fee, like with youngsters, is determined by a tribunal.

It’s not my job to draft labour laws, however I fear for the state of football, when this type of behaviour becomes the norm. No doubt, the “if you can’t beat ‘em - join ‘em” mantra will be trotted out, as my club joins that very distasteful party.

Anyway, it’s 4:54am, and I’m going back to bed. G’night.