Trent Alexander-Arnold is not the first person born and raised in Liverpool to be linked with a headling-grabbing move to Real Madrid. Alexander-Arnold, who grew up in the West Derby suburb, has been linked with La Liga giants for the best part of a year.

The England international, 26, will depart Anfield for free in the summer if his contract at the club reaches its expiry. He is not the first Liverpool academy graduate to be eyed by the 15-time European champions. Legendary Reds captain Steven Gerrard was pursued by Los Blancos when Jose Mourinho was in charge.

However, there is one huge difference between Gerrard and Alexander-Arnold's situation - the former still had unfinished business at Liverpool when Mourinho, who also chased Gerrard's signature when he was at Chelsea and Inter Milan, came calling.

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A matter of days before Gerrard retired from football, the iconic midfielder was asked about the times Mourinho tried to sign him. He replied: "I’d have signed for him three times if I was not a Liverpool fan and Liverpool were not in my heart.

"He is the reason why my head was turned on a couple of occasions. But he understood why he could not do it. It’s because I love Liverpool Football Club.”

Gerrard added: "I did at the time [wonder at what might have been]. But for me, I said to myself when I sat down with my dad and my brother, that if I win a couple of trophies at Liverpool, then it would mean an awful lot more to me than if I win 10 at Chelsea or Inter Milan or Real Madrid. It always means more when you win for your people."

Gerrard won the Champions League, the Europa League, two FA Cups and three League Cups during his time at Anfield, yet a Premier League title always eluded him. When Mourinho expressed his interest, there was still unfinished business for the Whiston native.

As well as his love for the club, Gerrard's desperation to win the Premier League and end a drought that began in 1990 always tied him to Anfield. Alexander-Arnold has no such thing tethering him to the red side of Merseyside, with his self-admitted primary career goal now being to win the Ballon d'Or - and he looks best positioned to tick that off at the Santiago Bernabeu.

He has already won every trophy there is to win for Liverpool. As well as being on the right track to winning his second Premier League title, he and his team-mates are one of the top contenders to lift the Champions League trophy after topping the league phase table with seven victories in eight matches.

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The allure of linking up with close friend Jude Bellingham in the Spanish capital could prove to be too much for Alexander-Arnold. When asked about the England international's future at the start of January, Slot remained tight-lipped on the topic.

He went out of his way to tell fans that Alexander-Arnold has not been distracted by the rumours linking him to Real Madrid. The Dutchman argued: "If it would destabilise players at Liverpool if other people talk about them, then we would really have a problem because if you play at one of the biggest clubs in the world everybody is always - for 12 months long - talking about you, sometimes in relation to other clubs.

"That happens so many times for our players, so if that destabilises them, then we really would have had a problem. Not only now but in the last six months, because there were some talks about our players in the last six months and I don't think it destabilised them at all."