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Arsene Wenger believes Trent Alexander-Arnold's move to Real Madrid has been two years in the making(Image: Getty Images)

Arsene Wenger believes Real Madrid would have been talking to Trent Alexander-Arnold for up to two years before the end of his Liverpool contract.

Reds right-back Alexander-Arnold announced on Monday that he will be bringing an end to his 20-year association with his boyhood club this summer, with the England international widely expected to sign for Real, perhaps before the start of the Club World Cup.

Alexander-Arnold called the move "easily the hardest decision" he's made in his career, but former Arsenal boss Wenger believes the switch shows that the era of inflated transfer fees is over, and that clubs such as Real are playing the long game and encouraging their targets to run down their deals.

Speaking as a pundit on beIN Sports alongside the former Chelsea, AC Milan and France defender Marcel Desailly, Gunners legend Wenger said: “I believe that it shows the trend of transfers now, and it shows a new trend in the game.

READ MORE:Real Madrid warned about ‘impossible’ scenario with Trent Alexander-Arnold in teamREAD MORE:Liverpool make final decision on transfer as contract offered to Premier League star

“There is no transfer anymore for the big, big players.

They go all at the end of their contract because the wages are so high that [if] you want to buy Marcel today you have to give him so much money that you cannot pay the transfer anymore.

“So what do the big clubs do?

They say two years before the end of a contract we want to buy you, we give you these wages and we will try to make an offer to the club.

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"If it doesn’t work, we come back next year and if it doesn’t work then, we will take you for free.

That is what they [Real Madrid ] did with [Kylian] Mbappe as well.”

Alexander-Arnold announced his impending departure from Liverpool on Monday(Image: @TrentAA)

Mbappe moved to Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer last summer after previous attempts to buy him were rebuffed, while Liverpool also rejected Real's advances to buy Alexander-Arnold in the January transfer window as Arne Slot wanted to keep his squad together for the ultimately successful pursuit of the Premier League title.

When Alexander-Arnold entered the final two years of his deal in the summer of 2023 Liverpool were just about to embark on a season outside of the Champions League, while there was upheaval in the boardroom due to the quickfire departures of successive sporting directors Michael Edwards and Julian Ward.

Liverpool had hoped to keep Alexander-Arnold and opened discussions with him on a new deal towards the end of the 2023-24 campaign, but by then there was further uncertainty around Anfield due to the imminent departure of Jurgen Klopp.

Arsene Wenger feels Alexander-Arnold's move was two years in the making(Image: beIN Sports)

Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah all began the 2024-25 campaign with one year left on their deals, but waiting to see how things would change for the Reds under new boss Arne Slot and incoming sporting director Richard Hughes.

Van Dijk and Salah would ultimately extend their stays at Anfield by a further two years, but with Alexander-Arnold's exit long in the pipeline, the 26-year-old's announcement on Monday came as little surprise.

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