It is always helpful to imagine how the actions of a footballer might be perceived in real life, away from the moral codes of the sport. After unpunished violent conduct in a pre-VAR age you would sometimes hear about “being arrested if you did that on the street”. Sometimes it pays to invert the equation.
So how do you judge a decision to move to a new company, for more money, in a place with better weather, after 20 years of exemplary service to your current employer? That is the decision Trent-Alexander-Arnold has made in joining Real Madrid from Liverpool.