Glen Johnson Warns Liverpool Against Trent Alexander-Arnold Reunion
Glen Johnson has warned Liverpool against a romantic reunion with Trent Alexander-Arnold, insisting the club should resist the temptation to bring the defender back from Real Madrid just a year after his controversial exit.
The 27-year-old’s future is already under the microscope in Spain after a difficult first season at the Bernabeu and the arrival of Denzel Dumfries to compete for the right-back spot. That combination has sparked talk that Alexander-Arnold could be moved on, with Liverpool inevitably dragged into the conversation.
For many on Merseyside, the wounds are still fresh.
Alexander-Arnold’s contract saga dominated Liverpool’s 2024-25 campaign. With his deal running down towards a June 2025 expiry, the club tabled several lucrative offers to keep their homegrown star. He delayed, deliberated and, in the eyes of many supporters, dragged the process out while weighing up a switch to Madrid.
On May 30, 2025, the story ended with a jolt: Real Madrid paid €10million (£8.5m) to buy him out of the final year of his contract so he could join early and be ready for the Club World Cup. Liverpool banked a fee, but emotionally, it felt like a free transfer gone wrong. A local lad who had spoken openly about his dream of captaining the club had chosen a different path.
The backlash was fierce. Large sections of the fanbase felt betrayed, convinced the club had been strung along. The idea of him walking back through the Shankly Gates so soon after leaving is, at best, complicated.
Johnson, who once patrolled the same right flank at Anfield, believes the club should walk away from any such prospect.
“I’m not sure how the fans would receive that move,” he told Liverpool.com. “I can’t imagine they’d be too happy with it, to be honest, especially if Liverpool had to pay a fee for a local lad who left the club for free twelve months ago.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the fans would warm back up to him after a while, but I don’t think he’s the same player as he was at Liverpool a year or two ago.
“He’s been a shadow of himself on the pitch since he left Liverpool, and if he’d been great, Real Madrid wouldn’t be letting him go. I wouldn’t re-sign him if I was making the decisions at Liverpool.”
Those are strong words, but they land in a context where Liverpool do have issues at right-back. Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley both endured injury-hit campaigns, leaving a position that once felt locked down by Alexander-Arnold suddenly looking fragile.
Even so, Johnson’s view is clear: sentiment cannot drive recruitment, not when the club would be paying to solve a problem created by the player’s own departure.
Mourinho wants to keep him
Not everyone is ready to give up on Alexander-Arnold in Madrid.
Spanish outlet AS reported earlier this month that returning Real boss Jose Mourinho wants the club to keep the England international. Mourinho, never shy of a reclamation project, is said to believe he can reignite the deep-lying playmaker who once redefined the full-back role at Anfield.
That faith comes despite a subdued first season in Spain, where Alexander-Arnold struggled to impose himself and now faces direct competition from Dumfries. If Mourinho wins that internal battle, any talk of Liverpool swooping back in could evaporate quickly.
The defender’s name has even been thrown into the Premier League rumour mill in a different, more incendiary direction.
Earlier this summer, former Manchester United captain Antonio Valencia floated the idea of United making a bold move for Alexander-Arnold.
“Trent is a player I like a lot,” Valencia said. “He has a very good right foot, he crosses well, and he is a player who defends well.
“He would be very good for Manchester United. He knows the Premier League. He knows what it means to win the Champions League and the Premier League.
“He is a passionate player, and I would like to see him at Manchester United.
“Hopefully it could happen, because we need players like that at Old Trafford. To play at that stadium, you need people with a lot of personality.
“Manchester always have to renew the squad, and this is a team that we hope can have a good Premier League season and win it.
“But in terms of a right-back… I just hope that whoever comes in can be the best possible option. And I hope [Diogo] Dalot does not leave, of course.”
The suggestion alone was enough to raise eyebrows. The idea of a Liverpool academy product crossing the divide to Old Trafford sits somewhere between fantasy and provocation, given the ferocity of the rivalry.
So Alexander-Arnold finds himself in a strange limbo: a year into his Real Madrid adventure, under pressure for his place, linked with a return to the club he left under a cloud, and casually name-checked as a dream signing for their greatest enemy.
Liverpool, for now, have a decision to make. Do they chase the player he used to be, or trust that the door they watched him walk through last summer stays firmly shut?
