UNTIL I CAPTAIN LIVERPOOL I WON’T BE SATISFIED
SAYS TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
‘It hasn’t changed me. I haven’t gone big-headed’
WHEN did life change? It is a question to which Trent Alexander-Arnold, the hugely promising Liverpool defender, is giving deep consideration.
In the past 12 months, there have been many things to show the 18-year-old’s changing status, from being given a locker in the first- team changing room at Melwood to a Premier League debut at Old Trafford in January.
But one moment is lodged in his mind. A few weeks after he had excelled in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, Alexander-Arnold was in the city centre, heading out for something to eat, when he saw a young boy wearing a Liverpool shirt.
The moment is ingrained because the shirt had his name printed on the back. ‘That was when it kicked in fully,’ he says. ‘I was taken aback. I never thought I could mean that much to someone. I’m just a lad playing for Liverpool trying to achieve his dream.
‘So to see a lad with my name on his shirt — when I grew up having the names of other players on my shirt — it meant a lot.’
There was a special reason. He grew up in West Derby, a mile from Liverpool’s training ground, and regularly used to walk down and squint through the cracks in the perimeter walls, watching Rafa Benitez put his squad through their paces.
He idolised Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso, Jamie Carragher and, above all, Steven Gerrard. From as far back as this impressive young man can remember, all he wanted to do was play for — and captain — Liverpool.
Over the course of this campaign, he has set out on that path. Nurtured at Liverpool’s Academy since the age of six, Jurgen Klopp is a huge fan, ss is Gerrard, who recently described him as a ‘beauty’. And Alex Inglethorpe, the academy director, has played a huge role in his development.
Hopes are high that Alexander-Arnold, whose uncle John Alexander is secretary at Manchester United, will go on to become a cornerstone of the Klopp era, to provide the local heartbeat that has been missing since Gerrard and Carragher moved on.
Life is not easy in the public eye for a footballer on Merseyside but Alexander-Arnold is level-headed. He still lives at home and his mother, Diane, has a huge influence in keeping him grounded.
‘When I go out I get recognised and you feel that people know who you are when you walk into a restaurant or something,’ he says. ‘But I don’t think it has changed me. I haven’t gone big-headed. It is about keeping your friends and family around you. They will either let you get big-headed or they will try to keep you humble, keep your feet on the floor.
‘The people around me have done that. They have told me that I have got a long way to go before I make it.
‘That’s the best way of seeing it, especially with your friends and family backing that up by always being there for you.’
Such an outlook has enabled him to treat the euphoria of making his Anfield debut in the League Cup tie against Tottenham in October — and the disappointment of being substituted along with another protege, Ben Woodburn, at half-time at Stoke last month — in the same measured way.
Some young players would have crumbled after such a difficult afternoon but Alexander-Arnold received a message of support from Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson the following day that let him know just how highly he is regarded. ‘Hendo just said it happens and that the next time we got a chance to make sure we take it,’ he said. ‘ That really helped us and it lifted us to have the captain saying that and letting us know he believes in us. It gave us that little bit of faith.’ Assuming he makes the progress Liverpool hope, Alexander-Arnold’s name will be seen more and more over the next 12 months and, to maximise his chances, the FA are allowing him to miss England’s Under 19 European Championship campaign in Georgia. There will be more tournaments and the dreams of helping Liverpool and England will fire him through the summer. The biggest dream of all, though, involves one small piece of fabric. ‘I have achieved goals,’ he says. ‘But the dream is to captain Liverpool. There will be goals to achieve along the way, but until I captain Liverpool I won’t be satisfied. It goes back to Steven Gerrard. He was my idol. ‘I always wanted to be like him, so wearing that armband would mean a lot to me.’
‘To see a lad with my name on his shirt — it meant a lot’