Trent Alexander-Arnold's Liverpool Return Talk Cools Amid Madrid Struggles
Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool to chase the bright lights of the Bernabeu. Right now, that dream is flickering.
The 28-year-old has started just three of Real Madrid’s nine La Liga games this season under new boss Jose Mourinho and has not played a single minute in their last three league and European fixtures, left to watch from the bench as an unused substitute. The move that was supposed to elevate his career has instead left him fighting just to get on the pitch.
In England, that lack of game time has sparked a familiar storyline: talk of a dramatic return to Anfield. A player raised in Liverpool’s academy, a fan base still bruised by the way he left, a club with a clear issue at right-back. The ingredients for a transfer saga are all there.
Only one problem. Liverpool aren’t biting.
Liverpool Close the Door – For Now
Sources have told Football Insider that Alexander-Arnold is not a target for Liverpool “at this moment in time”, despite Andoni Iraola’s ongoing problems on the right side of defence.
On the latest edition of Football Insider’s Transfer Insider podcast, it was made clear there is “nothing concrete” in the idea of bringing him back. The historic connection is obvious. The logic, for now, is not.
Liverpool have never truly replaced him since he walked away in 2025. Iraola has rotated Jeremie Frimpong and Ronald Araujo at right-back this season, searching for balance and reliability in a position that once picked itself. Yet even with that uncertainty, the club is not preparing a January move for their former star.
The message from Anfield is simple: sentiment will not dictate recruitment.
From Anfield Hero to Bernabeu Fringe
Alexander-Arnold’s decision to run down his Liverpool contract and leave for Madrid turned a local hero into a lightning rod. Toward the end of his time at the club he was booed by his own supporters, who felt betrayed as he edged towards a free transfer to Spain.
The tension did not ease when he returned to Anfield last November in a Real Madrid shirt for a Champions League tie. The reception was frosty, the mood unforgiving. Many in the stands took a certain pleasure in his current struggles, seeing them as a form of footballing karma.
On the pitch, his situation is stark. Mourinho has turned to Federico Valverde at right-back, preferring the Uruguayan’s blend of athleticism and discipline. Alexander-Arnold has slipped down the pecking order and is now forced to scrap for minutes rather than shape games, a dramatic shift for a player once central to Liverpool’s identity.
Speculation about his future was inevitable. When a high-profile England international loses his place at Real Madrid, the rumour mill rarely stays quiet. And when that player grew up at Liverpool, the links write themselves.
But for now they remain just that: links.
Fighting for His Place in Madrid
Despite the noise around him, Alexander-Arnold is expected to stay and fight for his role at Madrid. The stance from his camp is that he will continue to push for a place in Mourinho’s starting XI, rather than engineer a mid-season escape.
He has struggled to “hold down a regular place in the side this season under Jose Mourinho,” as explained on the Transfer Insider podcast, with Valverde now preferred at right-back. That reality has fuelled speculation, but not yet any concrete movement.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are looking elsewhere as they plan for the January window. The right-back issue is real, yet the solution, at least in the eyes of the current hierarchy, does not lie in rewinding the clock.
Love, Resentment, and a Door That Isn’t Quite Shut
For all the bitterness around his departure, Alexander-Arnold has not turned his back on Liverpool emotionally. In August, he admitted he still follows the club closely.
“Since leaving for Real Madrid, I've been back to Liverpool to visit family on a number of occasions. I still watch every game. I support them. I want to see them do well,” he said. “There will always be a place in my heart for Liverpool, no matter what. I hope one day there'll be a degree of understanding about the decisions I wanted to make around my own life.”
It is a complicated relationship now. A player who still loves the club. A fan base that once adored him and then turned on him. A team that clearly needs a right-back but is not willing to rewrite the past to fix the present.
So the picture is clear. Alexander-Arnold’s Real Madrid dream is under strain, his status diminished, his future a talking point. Liverpool’s right flank remains a problem, Frimpong and Araujo jostling for a role he once owned.
Yet as things stand, the story is not about a homecoming. It is about a player stranded between two worlds: no longer Liverpool’s cornerstone, not yet Madrid’s undisputed starter.
If this chapter doesn’t change in Spain, the question won’t be whether he wants Liverpool again. It will be whether Liverpool ever truly want him back.
