Liverpool manager Arne Slot has dropped the clearest hint yet that outgoing defender Trent Alexander-Arnold will join Real Madrid at the end of the season.

The England international announced on Monday that he will not be signing a new contract with the newly crowned Premier League champions when his current deal expires in June.

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Rumours have swirled for some time that the 26-year-old has been lining up a move to the Spanish giants, who will compete at this summer’s inaugural FIFA Club World Cup.

Real, who won last season’s UEFA Champions League, claimed the inaugural FIFA Intercontinental Cup in Qatar in December, and despite failing to defend their continental crown this season, will head to the upcoming global club tournament as favourites.

“He hasn’t said anything about it himself,” Slot told a news conference on Friday when asked if Alexander-Arnold could be released early from his contract to play for a new club should they be competing at the Club World Cup.

“For me, it’s impossible to comment on where he’s going and if that is a club that is going to play in the Club World Cup,” Slot added.

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“You see by my smile – we both know where he’s going to but it hasn’t been said yet. That’s impossible for me to comment on.”

Slot has warned, meanwhile, that excessive transfer fees could prevent him from signing a tailor-made replacement for Alexander-Arnold.

The defender’s exit leaves Liverpool short of cover in his position, with 21-year-old Conor Bradley, who has made 54 senior appearances, now their only recognised right-back.

“I think it would be a surprise if I were to tell you now, ‘Yes, we are looking at this and looking at that,” Slot said.

“We don’t talk about contracts here so we don’t talk about the positions or if we want to improve the team in certain areas.”

The Dutchman added: “That’s the most difficult thing for a club like Liverpool if you just won the league is that it is not easy to find better players than we already have.

“And if they are there, then they still need to be affordable and need to want to come.

“That last thing is mostly not a problem, by the way, but transfer fees sometimes are.”

Slot confirmed Bradley will start Sunday’s match at home to Arsenal but insisted that was not a reaction to Alexander-Arnold’s announcement as the Republic of Ireland international would have been in the team for Chelsea last weekend had he been fully fit.

And while Alexander-Arnold’s decision to end his 20-year association with Liverpool has provoked contrasting reactions among supporters and pundits, Slot said it was not his job to tell fans how they should feel about the situation.

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Slot, in his first season at Anfield after replacing charismatic manager Jurgen Klopp, has yet to speak directly to Alexander-Arnold since the announcement, only communicating via WhatsApp. But he intends to hold face-to-face talks on Friday in order to gauge how the player is feeling about the fallout from his decision.

“That people have an opinion about us, if it is Trent or me or someone else, is not new for anyone,” said Slot.

“Probably it’s a bit more now for him than he is used to, and probably a bit more negative, but I don’t follow all of this. I am not here to tell the fans how they should react.

“We are all disappointed but Trent is the first one also who said he would prefer us as a team and a club not to be too much distracted by this announcement.”

He added: “I am hoping all the energy on Sunday goes to the players and less as possible to Trent – unless it is positive then they can do whatever they want.

“I worked at clubs like AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord where every season a very good player or multiple very good players left the club so I am a bit more used to it.

“But the experience I have – and by the way this club as well – is that if a very good player is leaving the next very good player will step up and that probably will happen now.”