Revealed: The two examples that show why Arne Slot will NOT be rocked by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Real Madrid transfer saga, writes DOMINIC KING

The striker, who was in the middle of a contract impasse, presented himself to Arne Slot at a delicate moment and made his impatience clear.

There were, he told his manager, many suitors across Europe who wanted to take him away and give him the platform – and financial rewards – he believed he deserved. Such conversations can destabilize a football team and confuse its figurehead, but Slot listened and took it all in stride.

Slot may come across as a “Steady Eddie,” someone whose words don’t tend to play out a headline writer’s wishes, but behind the scenes, in the sanctum of the locker room, he knows what to say and when to say it must say. . On this occasion his message was crystal clear.

“Everything you say to me can be solved in the future. The clubs that want you will always be there,” he said of his main source of goals. ‘But now? Now we have trophies to win.”

No, this was not a snapshot of a scene at Liverpool’s AXA training base and heart-to-heart involving Mo Salah, but the summary of an issue Slot faced with Santiago Gimenez, the Mexican stunner who was integral of Feyenoord’s 2022-2023 season. Eredivisie-winning team.

Before the start of last season, Gimenez became restless, but Slot could not afford to lose him, not if he wanted to achieve his goals for the team. So a solution was found: Gimenez was convinced, signed a contract extension and Feyenoord deservedly won the KNVB Cup in April.

The situation he is currently facing at Liverpool will therefore not hold any horrors. Bulletins about the futures of Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are asking for more than just weather forecasts, and within some parts of the club this has led to growing annoyance.

However, Slot has remained optimistic and that is because he has not lost sight of the most important thing on the horizon: trophies.

At the top of the league domestically and in Europe, 180 minutes away from a first visit to Wembley, this is the position any manager would want to be in.

Many fans around Liverpool could follow the head coach’s mantra. The desperation for clarity about what the future holds for three men who have been the protagonists of the past decade is clear and understandable, but threatens to become all-consuming and distracting.

With the utmost respect to Salah, van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold: whether they put pen to paper tomorrow, next week, next month or not at all, it doesn’t matter. There are big prizes to be won and only unity and focus will make it possible to achieve these goals.

At Anfield on Sunday, during the breathless 2-2 draw with Manchester United, you could feel the impatience creeping up like ivy over the terraces, springing up in different directions as passes were misplaced or attacks failed. Thanks to last week’s Real Madrid disaster, Alexander-Arnold bore the brunt.

Slot may have been surprised at the focus his right-back attracted afterwards, but as someone who is always trying to educate himself, he will have learned another lesson in how unique Merseyside is in terms of its views and expectations of football.

If you were born in the area and play for one of the clubs, different standards apply. Only men like Steven Gerrard and Steve McManaman, Wayne Rooney and Ross Barkley will appreciate what Alexander-Arnold goes through as he looks beyond the city limits and wonders what’s next.

“I think it’s fine,” Van Dijk said on Sunday when asked about the noise.

‘Trent has his own people around him, his family and we are there too. He wants to perform as well as possible, like all of us. That is the main focus. In my opinion, maybe ask him, that’s the distraction… the game.’

Who knows? Perhaps the experience against United and the dissection that followed will bring the England international a little closer to Spain.

We don’t know because he doesn’t talk publicly about his contract, unlike Salah, who has provided a running commentary for six weeks.

His latest announcement came via Sky Sports when he revealed this would be the last time he played against United.

This has all been very effective, as it has stirred emotions among the fanbase in a way never seen before, to the extent that it makes you wonder if some value his signature more than a trophy.

Three more years for Salah or an 11th League Cup? Ask that question on social media and the answers would make fascinating reading, when really Bill Shankly’s mantra – ‘Liverpool Football Club exists to win trophies’ – should be all that matters.

To be clear, there is no suggestion that any of the three would do what Lutsharel Geertruida, a Dutch international who was wanted by Aston Villa last summer but now plays for RB Leipzig, threatened to do to Slot in the summer of 2022.

Geertruida dropped the kind of bomb on his manager before the start of that campaign that could have ruined everything. He was going to strike to get the move he wanted, but Slot worked very carefully and made the athletic defender an important part of his plans.

Geertruida was so influential: he made 41 appearances in the campaign and scored three goals, making him into the Dutch squad for the first time. He listened to Slot, wanted to learn from him and the reward for remaining patient came.

It could also be the case for this trio. They are purposeful winners and you suspect that Graeme Souness can see something of himself in them, in that he was able to play with freedom and desire in 1984 even though his contract was up and a move to Italy was on the horizon.

Souness led Liverpool to the First Division title, their fourth European Cup and, for good measure, scored the decisive goal in the League Cup final against Everton. The medals and the glory really mattered, everything else didn’t matter. What was true forty years ago must be true now.