Why did Liverpool fans boo Trent Alexander-Arnold?
The hostile reception received by the club's vice-captain at Anfield on Sunday has become a major talking point.
Even the most ardent of Liverpool fans will, in their heart of hearts, acknowledge that Trent Alexander-Arnold’s reasons for leaving the club make plenty of sense.
The defender cannot expand his cultural horizons in quite the same way while remaining at Anfield, nor can he add a La Liga title to his CV.
And so with that in mind, taking up Real Madrid’s interest is a smart decision that will allow him to grow both as a footballer and a person.
But to boil this situation down to a man simply carving out the best possible career path for himself and suggest passionate reactions are beyond the pale is to reject the truth that football is an illogical, emotional pursuit.
Fundamentally, we are all cheering 11 men we do not truly know placing an inflated ball of air into a net - there isn’t much room for logic here.
And even acknowledging that, there is sufficient rationale behind Liverpool fans' frustrations, even if opinion is clearly split regarding how to express them.
For starters, attempts to question this fanbase’s loyalty ignore that they have spent the past nine years aggressively pushing back against relentless jibes from fans of every other club in the country regarding Alexander-Arnold’s defending.
Darwin Nunez is also well-placed to vouch for Kopites’ devotion having been consistently supported throughout what has often been a frustrating Anfield stint.
Meanwhile, tortured attempts to invoke ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ while crying hypocrisy ignore that the club’s anthem is about solidarity, something which Alexander-Arnold has jettisoned in seeking a new challenge.
Admittedly, suggestions that tensions would not have existed had a fee been involved make little sense, particularly as Michael Owen was hardly loved when he was sold to Real Madrid.
But the fact that Alexander-Arnold is leaving on a free has not helped supporters shake the feeling that this move has been cynically engineered over a long period of time.
The generous view of the four-year deal the player signed in 2021 is that, at the very least, he was hoping to set up a battle for his services between his boyhood club and a European giant.
And it is clear enough now that he has been negotiating his exit for some time, with journalists close to Real Madrid having eagerly provided updates throughout that have aligned with the ultimate outcome.
This flies in the face of Alexander-Arnold’s claims that he did not want the situation to be played out in public, which instead now feel like a convenient excuse for the vice-captain to avoid media duties throughout the season.
It also casts a new light on his goal celebration at West Ham, which in hindsight looks like a classless taunt over speculation and supporter anxiety that he could have immediately quashed.
These are certainly not the actions of a man whose personal branding has often placed him as the local lad living the dream and for whom winning with Liverpool “means more”.
And the same goes for the fact he is rejecting the chance to cement the Reds’ status as England’s most successful club in order to instead do the same with Real in Spain.
That the Spaniards have knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League five times in the last 10 seasons is hardly helpful in terms of generating acceptance, either.
As such, it is not particularly difficult to understand why many fans are frustrated, or why they might boo a player who, in their minds, is already wearing that Real Madrid shirt.
Anfield’s support is famous for good reason, but it is not entirely unconditional, especially when it comes to those who opt out having long claimed they have never wanted anything else than to represent Liverpool.
Ultimately, there are consequences for that, including pantomime boos, the likely loss of an Anfield mural, and damage to the player’s legacy.
Yet, while there is a sadness to that outcome given how this story could have played out, the fans’ response is not as irrational as many outside observers are attempting to claim.