After Trent Alexander-Arnold announced he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, Mirror Football takes a look at six players who ignored Jurgen Klopp's warning and left the Anfield club
Trent Alexander-Arnold is not the first elite Liverpool player to walk away from Anfield. With a move to Real Madrid seemingly on the horizon, the England international took to social media to announce he will be leaving the club.
Alexander-Arnold, 26, has been with the Reds his entire career after coming through the ranks as a teenager. After two Premier League title triumphs, a Champions League, a Club World Cup, the FA Cup and two League Cups, he will be departing Merseyside.
But he is certainly not the first top level player to exit the red side of Merseyside. While the likes of Luis Suarez went on to thrive after their Liverpool departures, many players saw their careers hit a roadblock after chasing a move.
Alexander-Arnold's exit has upset a section of Liverpool fans, who are unhappy about him potentially moving to Real, who have beaten the Reds in two Champions League finals since 2018. The right-back will also be ignoring a warning Jurgen Klopp made many years ago.
In 2017, Klopp said: "Stay here and they will end up building a statue in your honour. Go somewhere else, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, to Real Madrid, and you will be just another player. Here you can be something more."
As Alexander-Arnold prepares for the next chapter of his football career, Mirror Football takes a look at six other players who chose to leave Liverpool and were made to regret doing so.
Philippe Coutinho
Philippe Coutinho's move to Barcelona was probably the most significant moment of Klopp's reign. The Brazilian was the very player Klopp gave the aforementioned warning to, before the Catalans paid Liverpool £142million for his services.
Liverpool would use that money to help sign Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Fabinho and many others, which helped the Reds win the Champions League the following campaign. Meanwhile, Coutinho's career faltered, as he could not replicate his brilliance at the Nou Camp.
While he enjoyed success on loan at Bayern Munich, he would be sent to Aston Villa, where he worked with ex-Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard. A bright start quickly petered out, despite Villa signing him permanently. The Midlanders have loaned him to Al-Duhail in Qatar and Vasco da Gama in Brazil.
Jordan Henderson
When informed by Klopp that he would no longer be one of the first names on the team-sheet, Jordan Henderson decided it was time to seek pastures new. Those pastures turned out to be in the Middle East, as Henderson moved to Saudi Arabia to reunite with Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq.
Henderson was on the receiving end of a huge backlash following the move, which lasted all of around six months. He walked away from his deal with Al-Ettifaq in January 2024, before going on to sign for Ajax, where he remains following a tumultuous period in his career after leaving the Reds.
Michael Owen
As the fourth, and so far, last English player to win the Ballon d'Or title, it was no surprise that Real Madrid were interested in Michael Owen. In the summer of 2004, Los Blancos gave him Alfredo di Stefano's legendary No.11 shirt and signed him for £8m, in a deal which saw Antonio Nunez move the other way.
He scored 16 goals in 45 appearances, but despite playing with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Ronaldo and many more, Owen admitted things were not quite right. In a previous interview with beIN Sports, Owen said: "As soon as I decided to go to Madrid, I lost control of my career.
"It marked the end of the perception others had of me as a player. It’s true that it was the ‘Holy Grail’ for a footballer, but it was also a place where the pressure is so intense you can hardly breathe. It wasn’t what I had expected.""
Owen ultimately only spent one season with Real Madrid, before moving back to the Premier League with Newcastle United. He later had spells with Manchester United and Stoke City prior to his retirement at the end of the 2012-13 season.
Sadio Mane
Liverpool fans will never forget the front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah. After winning the FA Cup and the League Cup in his final season, Mane left Anfield to move to Bayern Munich as part of a £35m deal.
It was a difficult prospect, as he was walking into the shoes vacated by Robert Lewandowski. Mane's move to Bavaria proved to be one of those transfers where neither the player or the club were the right fit.
After a single season, Mane was sold to Al-Nassr, where he now plays alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia.
Divock Origi
Uttering a bad word about Divock Origi in Liverpool is sacrilege. At Anfield, Origi fits into the cult hero' category rather than Liverpool greats, as he was far from prolific but had a handy knack of scoring important goals.
Whether it was his bundled late winner against Everton in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield, the crucial fourth in the 4-0 comeback victory over Barcelona or the crucial second which clinched the Champions League title in 2019, Origi often found the net at the right time. In 2022, at the end of his contract, Origi left to join AC Milan in pursuit of first-team football.
Unfortunately, whether as a starter or from the bench, Origi's finishing touch departed him. After a year, Origi was loaned to Nottingham Forest, where he did not muster a single goal in 20 Premier League appearances. Upon his return to the San Siro, he was banished to the reserves, where he has remained since.
Georginio Wijnaldum
Like Origi, Wijnaldum contributed many huge moments at Liverpool, particularly his brace against Barcelona in that comeback at Anfield. In a summer transfer window which saw Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donarumma arrive at Paris Saint-Germain, Wijnaldum was also signed by the French giants.
It looked to be the perfect club at the most exciting time. Things just did not work for him at PSG, who were trying to shoehorn a galaxy of superstars into a starting XI without ensuring the foundations were solid.
Wijnaldum moved to Saudi Arabia where he was also reunited with Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq. He would go on to reveal that he initially did not want to move to Saudi, as he had his eye on moving to former club Feyenoord.