Harry Diamond
Trent Alexander-Arnold is eyeing long-term dominance with Liverpool and says the current side ‘want to go down as one of the best’ in the club’s history.
Liverpool have enjoyed huge success over the past year with a wealth of silverware arriving on Merseyside, Jurgen Klopp’s side following last season’s Champions League victory by winning a maiden Premier League title and the club’s first top flight crown for three decades.
It’s been a meteoric rise for Alexander-Arnold who has flourished since coming through the academy ranks, the 21-year-old full-back already boasting an impressive collection of honours with his boyhood side.
Alexander-Arnold has been discussing his success with former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, and outlined his ambitions for the future when asked if he wants to be a future captain and the on-field embodiment of the club.
“Definitely,” the England international said in an interview with Carragher for the Telegraph. “We want to go down as one of the best Liverpool teams in history. We know we are on a decent way down the track and there is a long way to go, but there is no reason why we cannot do that.
“These situations where you have a team which has the players for a five, maybe six year stint challenging for and pushing for the league and Champions League do not come around often. That does seem realistic – maybe some teams will say it isn’t and you can’t expect to go for both competitions every year – but for us, that is the aim. We want to be in the Champions League final every year and make sure we are in the title race every April and May.
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“Right now, the club is in a position we have not been for a long time. We have shown we can win any and every trophy. We have won the two biggest in the space of two years, proving to ourselves and the rest of the world we are capable. Our job is to keep that motivation, and with the gaffer being the way he is that will not be a problem. No-one is relaxed thinking, ‘we’ve won it once’. We do not want to be a team that wins it and then goes another 20 or 30 years without winning it again.”
The West Derby born full-back insists he is ‘not naive’ to think the club’s current success will continue throughout his career despite their recent triumphs, but says he will ‘always feel that responsibility’ to ensure Liverpool are competing at the highest level possible.
“I would be silly to think the way I have started my Liverpool career and the way it is now will carry on for the next 15 years,” he said.
“I am not naive to think it is always going to be like this. It is hard to see that because of the way things are in the Premier League, with teams evolving so much. Every year there are five or six teams capable of winning the title.
“But I would say yes, however it goes I will always feel that responsibility to do everything I can to keep the club at the highest, world class level.
“I know this team will evolve, players will go and others come in, and staff might also change. They do at every football club. You have to change with the times and stay with it, staying ahead of the game off the pitch as well as on it as we have.”
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