![\"Real](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/662b6991-40ea-4848-8d1c-cc24de525233.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Liverpool academy graduate\u2019s decision not to renew his contract and leave in the summer led to him being booed by his own fans during the match against Arsenal in May after he had made his decision public.<\/p>\n
Although Liverpool received \u00a38.4million from Real to essentially buy out the final four weeks of his contract to enable him to compete in the Club World Cup, that was little consolation for many supporters who were upset by the way he handled his exit.<\/p>\n
That is likely to be reflected in his reception on Tuesday evening, even if he does not make the starting line-up as he has not featured in the last two matches since returning from a hamstring injury sustained against Marseille in mid-September.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t spoken about that precisely, but we have spoken about the team, the club,\u201d said Alonso, whose previous returns as a 2005 Champions League winner with Liverpool have been much more welcoming.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Real Madrid’s manager Xabi Alonso (second right) lays a tribute at the Diogo Jota memorial outside Anfield<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to have his own feelings and enjoy it his own way, so I am not going to say how he needs to feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure his history is different from mine, he was born and bred in Liverpool, I remember him from a young age in the academy and then coming to the first team and winning the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he needs to enjoy that moment because it is nice to be back and for him it is going to be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madrid opted to train in Spain before flying out, but after the press conference Alexander-Arnold laid a personal tribute at the temporary Anfield memorial to former team-mate Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash in July. Dean Huijsen, alongside Alonso and director of football Emilio Butragueno, presented the club\u2019s official one.<\/p>\n
In a handwritten message Alexander-Arnold wrote: \u201cMy mate Diogo. You are so missed but still so loved. Yours and Andre\u2019s memory will always live on. I smile every time I think about you and will always remember the great times we shared. Miss you mate, every day. Love Trent and family. Forever 20. YNWA\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso also had words of encouragement for a current Liverpool player in Florian Wirtz, who played a key role in Alonso\u2019s Bayer Leverkusen side winning the Bundesliga in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Germany international has struggled since his \u00a3100million summer move, but his former manager said: \u201cI have no doubts. It is just a matter of time. It is a big change for him to come to Liverpool after so many years in Germany, he\u2019s been there all his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a really special player. He has quality and personality and he\u2019s competitive. It has happened with great players in the Premier League before and I\u2019ve no doubts with Flo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is very special and probably one of the reasons I\u2019m here now (at Real Madrid) so I\u2019m very grateful to Flo. Hopefully not tomorrow, but I\u2019ve no doubt he will show his quality and class.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liverpool academy graduate\u2019s decision not to renew his contract and leave in the summer led to him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,1534,5134,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-161448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-liverpool-football-club","12":"tag-real-madrid","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115488797830758384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}