Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has revealed that Real Madrid’s transfer target Trent Alexander Arnold is ‘fully committed’ to the Reds and is working is ‘his a** off’ in training amid recent speculations that he could leave Merseyside for the Spanish giants.
The European champions recently expressed interest in signing 26-year-old Alexander-Arnold this January, offering to pay a fee rather than waiting to acquire him for free when his contract ends this summer.
Liverpool dismissed the initial approach and will likely reject any formal bids that may come in the next few days. While Arne Slot did not entirely rule out the possibility of his right-back leaving this month, he stated that Alexander-Arnold remains fully committed to Liverpool at the moment.
Asked if he could categorically say Alexander-Arnold will not leave in January, Arne Slot said: ‘I can tell you he is playing on Sunday (against Manchester United) and hopefully he brings the same performances as he brought in for the last half-year.
‘Everybody saw how great a first half of the season he had, how much he is here, how much he wants to win here. He played an incredible game against West Ham, we all remember the pass he gave to Mo (Salah).
‘I see him on the training ground every day working his ass off. He is fully committed to us and he will play on Sunday – if they don’t tell me he is sick! But I don’t expect them to.’
Arne Slot was pushed whether the developing saga could derail Liverpool’s title bid and added: ‘If it would destabilise players at Liverpool if other people talk about them then we would really have a problem.
‘Because if you play at one of the biggest clubs in the world everybody is always – for 12 months long – talking about you, sometimes in relation to other clubs. That happens so, so many times for our players… so if that destabilizes them, we really would have had a problem.
‘Not only now but in the last six months because there were some talks about our players in the last six months and I don’t think it destabilised them at all.’
Meanwhile, Arne Slot revealed that Joe Gomez is expected to be sidelined for at least “a few weeks” due to the hamstring injury he sustained against West Ham last week. However, defenders Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley will join team training for the first time today as they continue their recovery process.