Steve McManaman knows better than most, what is going through Trent Alexander-Anold's thought process as his move to Real Madrid appears to edge closer.
Like Trent, McManaman is proud scouser, Liverpool through and through, but at the peak of his powers made the move to Madrid, leaving his boyhood club behind him.
There is a lazy misconception that the winger's time in Spain was not a successful one, but the Liverpudlian won two Champions League medals, started in both finals and even scored in one of them.
However, an old tale that the Englishman told the We Are Liverpool Podcast back in 2023 has resurfaced, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture for Trent.
READ HERE: John O'Shea Highlights Newfound Ireland Trait That Harks Back To Teams He Played On
READ HERE: League Of Ireland Crests: What They Mean And How They've Evolved Over The Years
“I knew what it meant to play for Liverpool… I didn’t understand the complexities (of playing for Real Madrid).
“I remember we’d just won the Champions League and I’d only been at the club ten months, and the lads were in the dressing room singing Spanish songs and lifting the president up in the air.
"I joined in but I just felt I was a bit of a fraud. I did, because they’re all singing these Spanish songs and I just thought to myself, this is just weird.
“I got my phone and I took myself out of the dressing room and I went along the corridor and sat on the floor and listened to messages… but I wasn’t in the dressing room celebrating, because I thought it was all a bit weird.
“I remember thinking, I would have loved to have done this with Liverpool because I would have been right at the forefront of it all and sort of knowing all the words and really throwing myself into it.
"I was very much on the peripheries of all the celebrations just because I couldn’t understand it.”
Of course, the difference is Trent has already done all of this with Liverpool, he has won everything there is to win with the club, and his fellow Englishman Jude Bellingham will be waiting for him in Spain as well.
Nothing is finalised of course, but it looks much more likely that the right back will leaving in the summer.
