Liverpool fans are being criticsed for upset being sent towards Trent Alexander-Arnold for leaving the club and pundits are repeatedly missing why this is the case.

Speaking about the matter on ‘The Rest is Football’, Alan Shearer said: “I don’t get the criticism, I mean, he’s entitled to do whatever he wants.

“He’s given that football club absolutely everything. Yes, he’s on a good salary but he’s won everything and if he wants to challenge himself, going abroad and playing for Real Madrid, then so be it.

“They turned a bid down for him in January, so they could have made money on him.

“He’s played, I don’t know what, 350 games and he’s always given his best.

“They should give him a great send off.”

It seems clear that the Geordie is of the opinion that the anger sent towards our right back is financial-based, which isn’t the whole reason for this distaste.

Liverpool fans are being criticised for Trent Alexander-Arnold reaction

Paul Merson had a similar opinion to the former Newcastle United man, with the thought being that anger with the Scouser is ill-placed.

If we look at the reaction to Raheem Sterling and Fernando Torres when they both left, it’s clear that receiving a transfer fee doesn’t always remove anger from a transfer.

It’s certainly a contributing factor that the 26-year-old has chosen to run his contract down, rather than get the club some money in return for his services.

However, when we hear reports that he’s turned down bigger money from the Reds than what’s been offered in Spain and how the club has protected him from transfer talk – it hurts more.

What feels like the real nail in the coffin is that he’s one of us, brought up in the city and speaking about his desire to captain the club and be a one-team man for his career.

With Arne Slot’s side on the cusp of winning the Premier League, our No.66 is vice captain behind a 33-year-old Virgil van Dijk – he’s on the brink of realising his boyhood dreams that he happily shared with the world.

Instead, Trent ran his contract down and took a move to Spain – he’s certainly within his rights to do that but don’t tell us all you want to be the next Steven Gerrard and then leave through the back door of your own accord.

You can watch Shearer’s comments on Alexander-Arnold (from 10:27) via The Rest Is Football on YouTube:

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The post Shearer joins growing list of pundits to miss the mark on Alexander-Arnold anger from LFC fans appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

• I'm a Gen X woman with a name beloved by baby boomers, but often misunderstood by my peers.
• Today the name Linda is often associated with a frumpy archetype, as seen in TV shows and memes.
• The unique "y" in the spelling of my name helps me stand out from the Lindas of the world.

"Linda? That's my aunt's name!"

I probably wasn't even out of my teens before I'd lost count of the number of times a cute boy said this to me. "You have an old name because you had old parents," my older sister flatly told me once. My friends more tactfully insisted that "No, the 'y' makes it a totally different name!"

But my sister wasn't wrong: I'm a Gen X Lynda with a name beloved by the parents of baby boomers and even the silent generation. These days, the name has been reduced to a frumpy archetype. How did a name that was the equivalent of a TikTok sensation of its day become so relentlessly uncool?

Lindas are getting a bad rap

The "y" is the only thing standing between me and the Lindas of the world. As a Linda, I'm an episode-long joke on "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" in which everyone is confounded by a baby named Linda because Lindas are adult women who work in HR. There's also the bossy busybody of the "Listen Linda" meme (there but for the grace of Karen go I), which originated with a Linda recording her three-year-old son repeatedly insisting "Listen, Linda" with all of the exasperated patience he can muster faced with the implacable bureaucracy that a Linda embodies. As a Lynda, I have plausible deniability.

The comedic success of both the TV show and the meme relies on the confidence that we've all noticed certain things about people named Linda and that we'll all get the joke, and we do.

"Who's Linda? Your mom's friend?" Linda is the type of person who carries SlimFast in her purse and gets mad when she can't find her keys. Linda says things like "Mondays," with that little rueful head shake, you know the one. Of course she does. And Linda's meddling opinions likely need to be shut down: Listen, Linda.

We all know this Linda, but why? How did this extraordinarily popular name become this frumpy archetype?

The name isn't poised for a comeback — yet

One thing all the characters in the Kimmy Schmidt episode agree on — including the five middle-aged Lindas who all work in HR at the same company — Linda definitely can't be a baby.

These days, they aren't wrong. In the US, the name Linda began its sharp rise in popularity in the late 1930s, peaked in the late 1940s, and declined dramatically throughout the 1960s and 1970s to become one of the unlikeliest names given to babies today.

This is my name, and I'm keeping it

Of course, we Lyndas with a "y" were always somewhat rare, which is why I've always side-eyed HR departments, try not to make everything my business, and can solemnly swear not a sip of SlimFast has ever passed my lips. I do get mad when I can't find my keys though.

I try not to think much about the fact that I was almost an Elizabeth as I'm convinced my life would have taken a completely different trajectory. Elizabeth surely would have been several inches taller than my five-foot-one-inch frame and would probably have had a decent sense of direction. She'd have published a novel in her twenties and probably landed on one of those "30 Under 30" lists.

However unenamoured I have always been of my name, I've also never considered changing it. Wouldn't that just leave me with another name I'd also get tired of, only I'd have no one but myself to blame?

There's another reason I'm kind of attached to Lynda though. My father loved the name and had always wanted a daughter named Linda. My mother suggested the "y" addition just so it would be a little different. The name meant something to them even if it seems slightly ridiculous to me. Now that they're both gone, it feels like a lasting thread of connection with them both.

That and the fact that it's Lynda with a "y." I'm not one of those Lindas other people talk about — at least not as long as I can find my keys.