Trent Alexander-Arnold could be less than two months away from signing away his Liverpool future.

With overseas clubs allowed to negotiate pre-contract terms with Premier League players from January, the right-back has still not committed to a new deal.

His situation, as Liverpool fans are all too aware, is not unique. Fellow Anfield legends Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk also have just over six months left on their contracts.

Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are interested too, but Real Madrid are leading the race for Alexander-Arnold's signature.

Real Madrid have history in this department.

For all their history of Galactico signings, the club from the Spanish capital also love a bargain, with Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba and Kylian Mbappe among the stars to join for free in recent years.

Reports this week claim that Bayern's Alphonso Davies is set to become the latest name on that yellow-sticker list.

The trend makes sense - Real Madrid are a destination club and, crucially, have the finance to offer terms that almost no other side in European football can match.

And the latest new from the continent shows why, if Alexander-Arnold has his heart set on Real, Liverpool might be powerless to resist.

Real Madrid's financial results: Huge gap with Liverpool revealed In 2022-23, the last financial year on record, Liverpool's revenue totalled PS594m. It is expected to dip slightly in 2023-24, reflecting their absence from the Champions League.

Their wage bill meanwhile was PS373m and, according to analysis from finance analyst Greg Cordell, is projected decline to PS345m for 2023-24.

We will have confirmation when Liverpool release their accounts for last season in early 2025.

By that time, Alexander-Arnold might already be a Real Madrid player in waiting.

The 15-time European champions released their accounts this week, showcasing a spectacular set of results for a year in which they did the La Liga and Champions League double.

They became the first ever club to surpass EUR1billion in turnover, registering a modest profit of around PS13m in the process.

Most striking, however, is the amount they spent on wages.

Including bonuses, Real paid out PS434m in wages in 2023-24, which is higher than any wage bill ever recorded in the Premier League.

The PS89m gap between themselves and Liverpool shows just why there are major concerns about Alexander-Arnold departing Anfield next summer.

Can Liverpool afford new deals for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil van Dijk? FSG, Liverpool's Boston-based owners, are infamously choosy when it comes to how they spend their money.

In the business world, this has earned the investment group spearheaded by John Henry a reputation as one of the most forensic and efficient ownership regimes in sport.

In terms of new contracts for Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, they will look at it through a value lens rather than basing their decision on sentiment.

At Anfield this approach has left some fans justifiably frustrated - because Liverpool are running at a surplus and do have the bandwidth to offer their star players pay rises.

FSG are one of the only groups to have multiple teams in the top 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world, after all.

If they don't meet Alexander-Arnold's or any of his colleagues in the Liverpool dressing room's demands, it will be because they don't see enough value in the deal, not because they can't afford it.

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