{"id":547585,"date":"2025-11-04T03:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T03:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/547585\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T03:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T03:16:13","slug":"alonso-tells-alexander-arnold-to-enjoy-liverpool-return-no-matter-how-fans-react-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/547585\/","title":{"rendered":"Alonso tells Alexander-Arnold to \u2018enjoy\u2019 Liverpool return no matter how fans react | Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xabi Alonso has told Trent Alexander-Arnold<\/a> to enjoy his \u201cnice\u201d return to Liverpool as the Real Madrid defender prepares to face his boyhood club for the first time since his acrimonious summer departure.<\/p>\n

Alexander-Arnold is likely to receive a hostile reception at Anfield after he angered Liverpool fans by leaving at the end of his contract<\/a> last season. The England international would have exited on a free transfer but for Real paying an \u00a38.5m fee to cancel his Liverpool contract early and include him in their squad for the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old was part of a Real delegation that laid floral tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva outside Anfield on Monday night. The head coach and former Liverpool<\/a> midfielder Alonso, the defender Dean Huijsen and Real\u2019s director of institutional relations, Emilio Butrague\u00f1o, were also present. Alexander-Arnold laid his own floral tribute, with a message that read: \u201cMy mate Diogo, you are so missed but still so loved. Yours and Andr\u00e9\u2019s memories 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alonso is guaranteed a warm reception from the Anfield crowd having graced Liverpool\u2019s midfield between 2004 and 2009. He believes Alexander-Arnold should relish facing his boyhood team, if selected. \u201cWe haven\u2019t spoken about that precisely [the reception that awaits Alexander-Arnold] but we have spoken about the team and the club,\u201d the Real head coach said.<\/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 it. For 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<\/a>. So he needs to enjoy the moment because it is nice to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tribute to Liverpool\u2019s Diogo Jota left outside Anfield by Trent Alexander-Arnold of Real Madrid. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPA<\/p>\n

The former Liverpool defender\u2019s move to Real has not gone to plan on the pitch having sustained a hamstring injury on his Champions League debut for the club<\/a> against Marseille on 16 September. He has not played since and has been an unused substitute in Real\u2019s last two games.<\/p>\n

But Alonso said: \u201cHe is good. He didn\u2019t play [against Valencia on Saturday] because of the context of the game but he is available for any number of minutes. Tomorrow he may play and after the injury he had we need his qualities; he has great qualities. He is in a new stage for him \u2013 sporting, physically and mentally. We need to give him what he needs because he is an exceptional player that we have in our squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, promised Alexander-Arnold a warm reception, but was unsure how the right-back would be received by the home crowd. Slot said: \u201cI can only tell you what kind of reception he gets from me; I have great memories of the player and the human being.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was my vice-captain last season and I have memories of working with him which were only positive and have memories from watching him on television which were only positive as well \u2013 I can remember multiple great moments of his in a Liverpool shirt. He will get a warm welcome from me. Let\u2019s first wait and see if he is on the pitch tomorrow. How the fans react I have no clue but he gets a warm welcome from me, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso has told Trent Alexander-Arnold to enjoy his \u201cnice\u201d return to Liverpool as the Real Madrid defender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-547585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115489261757714788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}