Monday May 5:
He’s off then. We’ve pretty much known it was on the cards for the best part of a year (or more in some cases) but there was always the possibility he would see sense and not go through with it. By choosing to leave he’s shitting on his legacy.
Doesn’t matter how many chin stroking cunts in the media say that’s wrong and that we should all be blowing kisses at him and laying rose petals in his path as he walks away. This is football. This is how it is. Ask Michael Owen. Ask Steve McManaman. Shit, ask Phil Coutinho (and we got £140m for him!). You choose to walk away from Liverpool because you think you can do better, it’s going to severely damage how you are viewed by the majority of fans.
He knows this, and he’s still chosen to do it anyway. That’s fine, as long as he accepts his fate and doesn’t start fucking bitching in the future about how unfair it is that he isn’t given the love and respect in his home town that he deserves. Fuck that. His legendary status just went up in smoke so I don’t want to hear anything from him about it being unfair or that he doesn’t understand it. He’ll be remembered as a great player who played a big part in our success under Klopp, but he won’t be loved the way many of the others are. I’ve actually got more time for Henderson now than Trent, and I don’t have much time for Hendo at all.
Here is a lad who milked the “scouser in the team” image. Who spoke of wanting to emulate his hero Steven Gerrard. Who said his dream was to stay here for his whole career and captain the club. Maybe he meant it at the time. He probably did. People change, and he sure as shit did. Remember the likeable kid doing those “Wingmen” videos with his best mate Robbo? Whatever happened to him? He turned into a Prada dungaree wearing ponce who got a taste for the celebrity lifestyle and got his head turned by Bellingham. Trent has been walking around like his shit don’t stink for a couple of years now, and that’s a club where that arrogance runs through everyone, even the tea lady. The once humble lad from West Derby all of a sudden started thinking he was David Beckham, so moving to Madrid is a logical step.
There has been a significant change in him in recent years, both in personality and style of play. The Trent we saw in his first four or five years in the team was a much more likeable lad, and - if we’re being honest - a more effective player. Somewhere along the line he changed, and we’d see those occasional performances where he looked like chasing back was beneath him. Not all the time, but often enough that it started to turn some fans against him a bit. No Liverpool fans questioned him in those first four or five years. But it has crept in over the last two or three years, long before the contract issue ever reared its ugly head.
I’ve seen it and I've generally stuck up for him for the most part, with a few notable exceptions such as him not chasing back away at United and Napoli in quick succession a couple of years back, that abomination of a goal celebration at West Ham the other month and then his horror show at Anfield against United in the week Madrid bid for him. I could see he wasn’t the same lad or at times the same player, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Others weren’t, and he’s been getting a bit of stick on forums and social media for a while. That wasn’t happening in his first four or five seasons when he could do no wrong. The fans didn’t change though, he did, culminating in how he’s underhandedly engineered himself this free transfer to Madrid by continually stringing Liverpool along that he might still renew.
I’ve been saying all season that the word from Liverpool was they still thought he might sign, and it turns out he didn’t tell Slot until the March international break. Dragged it out all season even though he knew. So when he posted up his little dramatic video this morning, I didn’t watch it. I read the tweet he put out but I didn’t watch the video and I probably never will. Nothing he has to say is of any interest to me. I’m sure it was all about how tough a decision it was, how much he loves the club and “it’s not you, it’s me”. Yeah I don’t need to hear that as it’s all bollocks.
The fact it’s a "hard decision" is all I need to know. It should have been an easy decision - “fuck off I’m staying here”. So spare us the emotional shite about how much you love the club. If you loved it as much as you say you wouldn’t be tempted by those cunts. A team that beat us in two Champions League finals that he fucking played in by the way, let’s not forget that. He’s leaving for a rival club, a club most of us fucking despise.
Some people try to downplay stuff like this by saying it’s just like anyone else changing job. It isn’t, because unless you have sixty thousand people watching you do your job and singing your name while you do it, it isn’t the same is it? Football is an emotional, passionate sport, so don’t try to compare this with someone swapping Barclays for Halifax, or Burger King for McDonalds. The other big factor in this, and it’s probably the primary factor really, is that he’s a scouser. He did not grow up dreaming of playing for Real Madrid. It was Liverpool. In fact, there’s even an interview out there where he’s praising Barcelona as his second club!
So this isn’t a Spaniard like Alonso moving to Madrid, or a South American like Suarez or Mascherano or Coutinho going to Barca. South American players dream of playing for Madrid or Barca so it’s hard to deny them that dream or begrudge them it. Players leave their clubs to come to Liverpool because it’s a dream move. So when it happened to us you just have to suck it up as its the football food chain. Not when it’s a scouser though. A scouser who said all he wanted to do was play for Liverpool and be the next Gerrard. A scouser leaving when he could win all the trophies he wanted here.
Him suddenly deciding he wants to play for Madrid after being glued to the hip of Bellingham for the last few years is not going to fly. If you have it in your heart to wish him well and not care about all this, good for you. Personally he’s dead to me. I don’t hate him. I don’t think he’s a bad person. I just think he’s a knobhead who has let the celebrity lifestyle go to his head and he’s forgotten who he is and where he came from. He’ll remember it one day, and when he does he’ll probably regret what he’s done. By then it will be too late.
As for what happens now, personally I don’t want to see him playing again. He’s made his decision, and that’s fine. But I don’t have to like it and I don’t think we owe him anything in terms of giving him a fond farewell. I bet he gets one though. Slot will play him on the final day and some on the Kop will chant his name. Not everyone, but plenty will. That’s fine, each to their own.
My own view is he had his ovation last week and despite all that he’s still chosen Bellingham over us (because that’s what this is, he never harboured dreams of playing for Madrid until his boy went there). I don’t want to see him booed or given stick, mainly because it reflects badly on us. I don’t care about his feelings getting hurt. Fuck his feelings.
I hate Real Madrid and I hate Bellingham, so Trent can go and fuck himself now. I won’t even give him a second thought once he’s gone. I don’t think he deserves some big emotional send off and his presence on the bus at the parade will sour things for some fans who won’t want to see him. I don’t want to see him either, but equally I would say that he has every right to be on that bus and his team-mates will want him there, so I wouldn’t call for him to be left behind. But it is going to be uncomfortable, not least for him. He’s going to be sheepish as fuck on that bus. He might actually choose not to be there.
I’m also sick of hearing the likes of Slot and some of Trent’s team-mates talking about how unfair it is for anybody to question his commitment to the club or his love of it. I mean, not signing a contract is literally refusing to commit to the club! Why are we not allowed to question it? Like a fella who leaves his wife and kids to run off with a stripper (Bellingham) and then says “how dare you question my commitment to my family”.
Just because for the most part he has given his all this season does not mean he’s “committed” to the club. He was never committed to the club because he refused the contract and made up his mind to leave at least 12 months ago, probably longer. He signed a four year deal when others were penning five and six year ones. One might say that was because all of this was planned, but I’d suggest it was more about his age and wanting to negotiate what would be the most important contract of his career when he is at the prime age of 26. Who knows really though?
He gets some degree of credit for not phoning it in this season, but the way he’s gone about this whole thing stinks and I’m sure he will live to regret it. We won’t though. We’ll move on and we’ll be fine. The team is not going to stop functioning because we lost a right back.
He’s quickly going to discover though that the grass isn’t greener. When those white hankies are waving and the Spanish press are fucking mauling him after Raphinha has tore him a new one in El Classico, and the Madrid fans are comparing him unfavourably with crowd favourite Carvajal, he’ll realise what he’s done. And when they decide in a year or two they want rid of him and he’s desperate to come back here (like Michael Owen was), he’ll realise what a mistake he’s made when Liverpool aren’t interested in paying £40m for a player who walked out for nothing.
There’s every chance he’ll be at Newcastle or Spurs or Villa in a few years time, and when he’s eventually retired he’ll be lamenting how unfair it is that he isn’t loved in his home city despite all he achieved here. Well you were warned about that and you still chose Bellingham, so tough shit.
And Cody Gakpo, don’t think I’ve forgotten what you said last week about “hopefully Trent stays too”. You already knew he was going so unless you were hoping he would change his mind, that’s some sly, disingenuous shit from a supposed man of God.
If there’s one good thing to come out of this though it’s that I can finally call him Trent Benedict-Arnold. I’ve been sitting on that all season.
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