'Liverpool star at the top of Real Madrid's transfer wishlist'

The Spanish champions will have to cope without Dani Carvajal for the remainder of the season following a serious cruciate ligament injury he sustained in the 2-0 victory over Villarreal earlier this month.

Madrid are in the market for a new right-sided defender and The Athletic reports that signing Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool is the club’s first-choice option.

The report adds that Tottenham’s Pedro Porro, Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong and Sevilla’s Juanlu are also on Madrid’s shortlist.

Meanwhile, Marca report that Madrid are giving serious consideration to signing Alexander-Arnold in January, given that his contract with Liverpool is due to expire at the end of the season.

Marca’s report adds that Liverpool are growing increasingly resigned to the belief that they could end up losing Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer next summer.

Asked about his future at Anfield last week, Alexander-Arnold told ITV: ‘I’ve entered the prime of my career right now and I don’t want to be the player who only won trophies when he was young.’

Liverpool are also facing the prospect of losing both Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah as their contracts are also due to expire next summer.

After Liverpool’s 3-0 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford in September, Salah indicated that this will be his final season at Anfield.

Speaking in August, Van Dijk said of his situation at Liverpool: ‘I’m very calm. I want to play the best season I can again.

‘I want to be important and stay important for the club this year. Whatever happens next year, we will see. Everything happens for a reason is how I see it and for now there have been no changes in my situation, but I am very calm about it and there’s no reason for me to start thinking of something else because I have a whole season to play for still and hopefully it will be a successful one.’

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