According to reports, Trent Alexander-Arnold officially confirmed on Monday what had been rumored throughout the season: he will leave Liverpool at the end of the current season to take on a new challenge in his football career.

During his time at Anfield, the right-back won two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Club World Cup. He will soon sign a five-year contract with Real Madrid, joining his England teammate and close friend Jude Bellingham.

In fact, Real Madrid began negotiations with Liverpool just hours after Alexander-Arnold’s emotional farewell video was released—right before the Club World Cup. However, Arsene Wenger now claims that the Spanish club’s efforts began much earlier than many fans realized.

He told the Daily Mail: “I think this represents a new trend in football: there are no more transfers for big players. They wait until the end of their contracts because wages are so high. If you want to buy someone like Marcel Desailly today, you’d have to pay them so much that there’s no budget left for the transfer fee. So what do they do?”

“Two years before the contract ends, they say: ‘We want to sign you, this is the salary we’ll offer, and we’ll try to make a bid.’ If it doesn’t work, they come back the next year, and if it still doesn’t work, they sign the player for free—just like they did with Kylian Mbappé. Real Madrid had been working on signing Alexander-Arnold for a long time.”

When asked whether the timing of this transfer was problematic, Wenger dismissed the idea, stating that the move was arranged after Liverpool’s season ended: “No, because his season is over. Overall, I think the timing is right because Liverpool have already won the title and are no longer competing for any trophies.”

“This gives Liverpool time to sign a new defender. Finding a replacement for such a player will be very difficult because he was a creative full-back.”