The Rondo - Player Loyalty

I feel like there's just a lack of loyalty in life in general at this point

Bro, are you okay? Yeah, for real. I remember my girl left me. Trent's leaving Liverpool now

So we've heard the news of Trent Alexander-Arnold going to Real Madrid

Do you guys think player loyalty in football is dead? Yes. I mean, but it's strange, right

Because no one really owes anyone anything anymore. But there is that entire lack of this idea of the one club man

No one's staying and it's kind of ruining my childhood dreams. I feel like there's just a lack of loyalty in life in general at this point

Oh, you okay? Yeah, for real. Like, I remember my girl left me. Trent's leaving Liverpool now

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You know what I'm saying? Whoa. Let's not draw false equivalencies here

Trent leaving Liverpool could hurt me more than any girl ever could. How do you feel about him going to Real Madrid, seriously

I think for me, it's really tough to see because he was one of the guys that I idolized

You know what I mean? And especially because there aren't any, like, Liverpoolians outside of Curtis Jones, like

in the team there was this whole idea that he's been there since he was a kid he's name-checked

Steven Gerrard he said he likes Barcelona more than Real Madrid multiple times which is funny

um I don't know it's just it's just hard to see a player go but at the same time like you've got

to try and put yourself in the shoes of that player and if Mbappe, Bellingham, Vinny, Rodrigo

Valverde with Ancelotti as the manager all go and say hey buddy come and play for us how are you

supposed to say no? Of course and I know you guys seen that video of like Trent Alexander-Arnold at

the house of like Mo Salah, chilling with Virgil and those guys. What do you think was said in that room

I saw a comment. Somebody, I think one of the comments in the comment section was like, they're doing like a session

They're doing like a- An intervention. Yeah, intervention session. Exactly. I think people need to understand

that the concept of loyalty, the definition of loyalty, I think it's changing a bit, you know

And is that necessarily a bad thing? If you're looking at it from the perspective of fans

from the olden times, it's like the Barclays Premier, you're talking about Steven Gerrard. If you're looking at it

from that perspective, of course you're feeling like, oh man, there's no loyalty anymore

But I think the modern era of football, loyalty is dictated a little bit more about how much you pour into the club at the time

And players like Trent I guarantee you he leaving for Real Madrid You mentioned the team that they stacking up there Yeah of course they have an incredible team set up but it also from a player brand image perspective Now they want to go reach out to different fan bases

different leagues, different eras, different journeys. And I'm actually not too mad at that

Well, I feel that, but also that's kind of why it hurts, right? Because there's this idea now of like a player before club

And especially as a Liverpool fan, when you think about this, it's a collective

Of course. It's a collective. No player has ever been bigger than the club. So I see your point, but it goes both ways, right

You want to say, like, no one's bigger than the club, but then the players want their own thing

I mean, part of me thinks, look, man, he signed a five-year deal, four-year deal a few years back

He's won everything. He's done his thing. He's set a single-season record for assists for a defender

What more can he give to this club? Okay, now he wants to go. But at the same time, it's like, you're our guy

You're supposed to be our guy. But I feel that conversation is so illogical, though

because a player like Trent, with all due respect, I don't think he's disrespected Liverpool in any way

If he came out and he was firing shots at everybody, then I understand. He's honored his contract

He's won everything there is to win. What else can you really ask for him

I understand you're feeling sad, but through some of the reaction from some of the fan base, I feel like it's a little bit over the top, respectfully

Yeah, for sure. Look, Twitter is a cesspool of idiots. I'd like to make this quick

You don't be asking Grok. Sorry, sorry. It's Trent Leder. Ask Grok. Ask Grok

Chats are we cooked. No, I think the thing, like, look, there are there are Liverpool fans who are out here burning kits and doing this that and the

other and like even when Stevie G was talking about leaving what like multiple times like there

are fans burning kits there I don't think that's representative of the way that most of the fan

base thinks he's kind of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't right because if he comes

out and he says yeah lads I'm out then he gets booed for the rest of his Liverpool career but

then if he lets the whole thing play out in the media and let's face it it's always going to play

out in the media danny looks like a quote-unquote snake for lying i also feel like player loyalty

goes both ways with the club and the player because we already know that a lot of clubs are not loyal to these players at all like let's be real a lot of these players going to clubs like

for example you know antony to manchester united for example i just gonna bring it up for john but it like it like at first everybody so excited for the signing When they don play well the club you know kind of just turns their back on the player

and they go somewhere else and they're able to produce. But my point is, is that the reason why player loyalty

isn't the same anymore is because clubs don't treat players with the same loyalty. Yeah, well, that's true

And look, we'll come to Man United at some point and I will shut up and let John have the floor at that point

But what I will say is that I feel like Liverpool have looked after Trent Alexander-Arnold really, really, really well

There's rumours of Trent Alexander-Arnold actually going to Real Madrid before the Club World Cup tournament starts

How do you guys feel about, you know, potentially there being a small fee being paid to Liverpool from Real Madrid to have his services in time

for that tournament? I don't think it's about the money. I don't think it's ever about the money

Because if you think about this, Trent Alexander-Arnold is a homegrown player. The net loss is zero if he goes for free, right

So technically, what you're doing any money is profit, right? It's not about the fee

And the fee doesn't represent anything. He doesn't owe them anything. I don't, like, I'm not having that

But then again, if someone wants to give us 20 mil, cheers, Lon. Yeah, for an extra 30 days

Yeah, why not? Why not? You got to take that 20 mil. But you know what's funny, though, is that, like, oh, my God, picture the scene

I'm, like, at a Club World Cup thing covering it for gol.com

Like, I've got an interview. You got an interview. You got to be like, bro, I can't believe you left. Why'd you do this to me

You broke my heart. Why'd you do that to me, bro? Do you think these players will be one club men

Phil Foden. No. No. Saka. Yes. No. Kobe Maynard. No, they're going to have to sell him

Yes, he's going to be a Man United legend. I love that

I love that from John. Warren Zaire Emery. No. No. I think someone comes in with a big..

Joel Neves kicked him out of the team, hasn't he? Laminia Moll. Yeah, surely

He has to. Yes. Yeah, I have to. How do you guys think these transfers between, you know, massive clubs and small clubs affect players and their relationships to like their clubs

For example, Omar Marmoush, right? Going to Man City for 70 million. No matter how loyal he is to Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt when they see that bread they selling him So how do you think those relationships with players and their clubs affect their loyalty to clubs even though they know that at the end of the day if a big bid comes in he out i think it really depends on the club and the circumstances

but especially in this time and age i think there was an era where the transfer fees were crazy

we're talking about namor we're talking about mbappe then we were the numbers reach up to the

upwards of 200 mils yeah i don't care what club you are if if somebody pulls up with 200ms you're

going oh my days i'm thinking i'm thinking once i'm thinking twice i'm thinking thrice it don't

matter who you are i think i think that sort of over inflation has come down a little bit and then

i think we're in an era now where clubs are slowly starting to realize that like oh maybe we can't be

spending recklessly we're talking we're going to talk about man united in a bit but match is a

perfect example overspending and and spending too big and gambling too big with no real identity

and structure from clubs like frankfurt 70ms like you said that they're going to take that

loyalty and the concept of it continues to change for those kinds of reasons and clubs and players

both alike are revisiting and reshaping what that really means for those reasons yeah but it's got

to hurt if you're a frankfurt fan at the same time right like you i mean they had randall

colomani while he had a great season and then you know world cup final thing that was funny

but like they get what 90 mil for him from psg which is robbery by the way half he was living

off half a good season and then they lose marmouche as well i mean it looks like they might lose uh

hugo as well i was gonna say your mates aren't you but like that's also gonna hurt as a fan man

if you feel like frankfurt you know we're one big signing away we're one manager you know we're one

something away and then someone's gonna come and pinch it but i feel like for those clubs

especially in the bundesliga like they kind of know where they fall in the chain or the pyramid

because you know byron's always gonna come first byron always gets first refusal of any player

coming out the Bundesliga. Let's be real. Like, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund

all these clubs literally just feed Bayern. They're like, bro, we're going to give you our fate

You know what? You guys struggled last year. Let's give you guys our best players. That's just how it works

But it's like, at the end of the day, for a player coming from a club like Frankfurt

that's competing for like the Europa League, it's kind of hard to fathom that like

if another club that's just a little bit bigger comes with bread, no matter how loyal you are to that club

you're gone