A homecoming is off the table. Any lingering hope that Trent Alexander-Arnold might engineer a sensational return to the club he left in 2025 has been parked, with the 28-year-old having no plans to leave Real Madrid and intending to fight for his place under Jose Mourinho, The Hard Tackle reports.
That tightens the squeeze on a defence that has to be rebuilt from the summer of 2027. Virgil van Dijk’s contract expires then. Ronald Araujo’s loan ends at the same point. The right-back slot Alexander-Arnold once owned is still being patched over.
Enter Jarrad Branthwaite. Liverpool scouts have been tracking the 24-year-old Everton centre-back as a long-term heir to Van Dijk, CaughtOffside reports, and Everton are not moving off their valuation of around £80m. Manchester United, who had two bids rejected in 2024, remain the obvious rival.
A derby deal frozen since 2002
Branthwaite’s contract at Goodison runs until 2030, and Everton are determined not to sell unless an exceptional offer arrives, per CaughtOffside. The last time Liverpool and Everton did any meaningful first-team business was in 2002, as Football365 notes, and the price of thawing that stand-off starts at eight figures.
Liverpool ready to let Van Dijk go
The defender Branthwaite would replace is being quietly ushered towards the exit. Van Dijk is 35, turns 36 the summer his deal expires, and former scout Mick Brown told Football Insider, in comments carried by Football365, that the club is already planning for life without him. In Brown’s assessment, Branthwaite sits near the top of the shortlist of replacements.
“It seems like Branthwaite ticks a lot of boxes, and when you’re talking about replacements for Van Dijk, he is somebody who is very high on that list,” Brown said.
The appeal is specific. He is left-footed, Premier League-tested and comfortable defending the space behind a high line. That is the profile Liverpool have played with for a decade, and it cuts out most of the adaptation risk teams accept when shopping on the continent.
Brighton’s Luka Vuskovic is on the same shortlist, but Liverpool have been told it would take a very large fee even to open the conversation, and the Seagulls are in no mood to sell. That leaves Branthwaite as the realistic target, and Manchester United as the realistic obstacle.
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Three starts in ten La Liga games
Alexander-Arnold’s situation at the Bernabeu goes some way to explaining why he is choosing the fight rather than the flight home. He has started three of Real Madrid’s first ten La Liga matches this season, played only one minute of the Clasico against Barcelona, and sits behind Denzel Dumfries and Federico Valverde in Mourinho’s right-back order, per The Hard Tackle. His contract runs until 2031, and Mourinho is reported to view him as a player for the biggest nights.
Van Dijk’s contract runs out at the end of the 2026-27 season, leaving Liverpool the summer 2027 window to close the Branthwaite deal before Manchester United do.
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