Silver-tongued Trent Alexander-Arnold finds just the right words on his Real Madrid debut, writes IAN HERBERT

Daily Mail​

a day ago

His opening words were 'Buenos dias a todos' ('Hello to you all') and since Trent Alexander-Arnold had stepped up to speak with no notes, the audience of Real Madrid dignitaries assumed this would be the extent of his diplomatically rehearsed Spanish.
But he continued, sentence after sentence, without a moment's hesitation, building an immaculate one-minute speech in what sports paper Diario AS described as 'perfect' Spanish.
'I have a lot of desire to show the Madridistas how I play,' he said in the language of his new home. 'I'm aware of the responsibilities.' He concluded with a nod to Real's famous anthem Hala Madrid!...y nada mas ('Hail Madrid and nothing else') by saying: 'Gracias and hala Madrid!' Gareth Bale this was not.
They have seen a fair few British players unveiled in this city and perhaps none brought such an aura as David Beckham, whose introduction by Real in 2003 was watched by an audience of two million supporters on Real Madrid TV and who had shifted 8,000 replica shirts with his name on the back before he had even uttered a word.
But at his presentation as a Real player, Beckham merely said, 'Thank you, you've made me a very happy man', in English. They have never witnessed an introduction like Thursday's.
Later, at Alexander-Arnold's inaugural press conference — which attracted a far smaller crowd than Beckham's — there was the rather awkward question of how his Spanish got to be so good when he has supposedly been wracked with indecision about whether to leave Liverpool over recent months.
His declaration that 'this is a very exciting day that I've been waiting for, for a long time' did not exactly dampen suspicions that he had not been totally focused on Arne Slot.
He then tried, not altogether convincingly, to row back a little. 'By waiting 'a long time' it was a couple of weeks, not years!' he said. 'But I am very excited to be here.'
That is the tightrope the 26-year-old walked, wanting to convey his delight with new horizons, yet not wanting to offend those he has left behind, where his departure for a mere £10million, virtually out of contract, provoked such a negative response last month.
But in that minute or so of impeccable Spanish and in the subsequent discussion, we saw an individual balancing self-confidence and big ambition with understatement, modesty and the lack of a raging ego. One who, after 20 years, is ready to strike out beyond Liverpool in a way some players from that city never did. It was impossible not to think, 'Good luck to you.'
There had been jet-black storm clouds over the Spanish capital late on Wednesday, the day he flew out here, and a fair few bumpy landings around Madrid's Barajas Airport. The uncomfortable intensity of what he was getting into also quickly became known to him.
Real Madrid TV's 'Bienvenido, Alexander-Arnold' special was up and running hours before he did the usual introductory rituals, including endless 'thumbs up' photocalls and signatures.
The show saw him gazing out of the back window of a limousine on the drive to the vast landscaped training complex at Valdebebas in searing morning heat. Ciudad Real Madrid is so vast that buggies are supplied to get around it. It is a far cry from Liverpool's old Melwood training ground, where as a boy he would peer through gaps in the grey walls, trying to glimpse his heroes.
Spain's press obsessed over the fact that he would be prevented from taking the '66' jersey which he made iconic at Liverpool. First-team players in La Liga may not take numbers above 25. The maximum of 11 characters for a name on the back of a Real jersey also meant he would be merely 'Trent', Marca calculated.
Alexander-Arnold revealed he had reached his own decision about what he would be called.
'I always found that, in Europe, the whole name situation confused a lot of people, with it being double-barrelled,' he said.
'They called me Alex, Arnold, Alexander, Trent. There's a lot to go on, so let's make it easy. Trent on the back. That's what people can call me.'
A man with his own identity, then, and — he claimed — one with his own mind. Much has been made of the part his 'very good friend' and England teammate Jude Bellingham played in persuading him to come here, though he played that down.
'We spoke,' he said. 'But it wasn't exactly what people thought it was. A lot of people thought he had a huge part in me coming here, but the club spoke for itself. It was a huge chance.'
Alexander-Arnold did not discuss Thomas Tuchel's observation that the rage Bellingham displayed at the end of England's defeat by Senegal this week is part of a 'repulsive' pattern of behaviour.
But the clarity and sure-footedness of the man in the immaculate black suit seemed far removed from the terrified Michael Owen, another Liverpool star who arrived here in 2004.
Owen was so conflicted about leaving Liverpool for this place that he wept for a good part of the drive to Liverpool Airport and was so traumatised by an introductory ritual of doing keepy-ups on the Bernabeu turf that he smashed a series of balls into the stands instead.
Alexander-Arnold arrives with a close friend in the camp, unlike Owen, who always found his compatriot Beckham to be a remote figure here, with bigger fish to fry.
In Real's new manager Xabi Alonso, there is also a manager whose liking for a 3-4-2-1 system at Bayer Leverkusen suggests the new wing back can flourish. Alonso, of course, was one of Liverpool's 2005 Champions League winners, a team which Alexander-Arnold loved.
'I told him he was a bit of an idol of mine growing up,' Alexander- Arnold said. 'Watching him pass a ball influenced me to train harder at that. I explained this to him.
'He is a new manager and he has to get his ideas across to the team. It might take some time, but I am excited. I will be a sponge around him, trying to soak up all the information I can.'
His talent will probably be more appreciated here, in a country where more weight is put on wing backs' creative merits than the kind of defensive limitations which have led to some criticism at home.
'It's not something I've really thought about,' Alexander- Arnold said. 'I don't know if I will be appreciated more.
'Whether I am or not by fans or people, it doesn't really bother me that much. It is what it is. As long as the manager and players appreciate me, then whatever.'
The '12' jersey he will wear, handed to him by club president Florentino Perez in front of 15 replica Champions League trophies in the complex's trophy room, has historic implications for full backs. It served legendary full back and captain Marcelo well, as he held it throughout his 16 years at the club.
As Alexander-Arnold spoke, your eye drifted to a small, black and white image called 'Palmares' — which translates as 'list of winners' — pinned to the wall to his right. It is a formidable reminder of all the silverware this club has won and the history and expectation which go with it.
The Club World Cup is not the same target for cynicism in Spain that it is in the UK because Real are desperate to lay claim to being its first winners.
'This is the club of 15 European Cups,' Perez told him. 'You will soon be engulfed by the magic of mysticism of this club. You will soon see what Madrid is.
'Every trophy pushes us forward to try to win the next one and the next one is the Club World Cup. You are going to see very soon what it means to be followed by 650million Real Madrid fans worldwide.'
On this day at least, all the new recruit could respond with was words. 'I think me speaking Spanish surprised a lot of people,' he said before heading off into his new life.
'For me, it was important to do that. Have a good start. Get off on the right foot.'