Trent, Liverpool and the abuse fallout

As someone who has seen players leave my club before, the abuse is the part that feels worst because once that starts everyone loses the plot and it stops being about football. But I also think supporters are allowed to feel betrayed when a homegrown player goes out the door in a move that looks planned well in advance, it just leaves a nasty taste and people react badly because of that
 
The officials and the internet police can both get in the bin here because the abuse is a separate issue from the fan reaction and people keep trying to blur the two together to make some point about morality when it is really just a football grievance that got out of hand. He left a club that made him, left in a way that felt premeditated to a lot of supporters, and then everyone is shocked that the crowd and online lot were bitter about it. That does not make abuse okay, not even close, but it does make the criticism understandable and the constant lecturing from outsiders a bit rich when they would be furious too if it was their club and their local hero doing the same thing
 
People are being far too soft on his performance and his attitude because the whole thing was not just about leaving it was about how he carried himself before he went and the smugness from him and his camp was unbearable, the shushing, the hints, the drawn out nonsense, all of it made him look like he thought he was bigger than Liverpool and now everyone is shocked that fans turned on him, well of course they did because nobody likes being treated like an afterthought by a local lad who once got built up as the face of the club and then acted like he was doing everyone a favour by staying around until the timing suited him
 
The tactical side hardly matters to the emotional fallout but if you strip it back he is the kind of player who divides opinion because people either want him as a creative outlet or think his defensive work makes him a liability and once the trust goes with fans every mistake gets magnified and every good pass gets ignored
 
All this crying from neutrals about fans being mean is hilarious when they would be doing the exact same thing if their academy lad pulled this stunt and then acted surprised at the reaction
 
There is a difference between booing someone and sending abuse. Fans are entitled to be unhappy about the move, especially if they felt he had already checked out, but the online pile-on is still a separate problem. The club and the player both lose when it gets this toxic.
 
I think the reaction makes sense even if I do not agree with the worst of it. He was a symbolic figure for Liverpool supporters, so the move was never going to be treated like a normal transfer. That said, the abuse only makes everyone look worse and distracts from the actual football point.
 
I honestly think people are being way too harsh on him because it is easy to sit there and act like every footballer owes the badge their whole life when in reality careers are short and everyone is looking out for themselves at some point and if he genuinely felt the next step was elsewhere then that is his choice and Liverpool still got years out of him and trophies and all the rest of it and the abuse he has had to deal with is embarrassing and makes the fanbase look awful to anyone watching from outside and I know some people will say he should have done more for the club or whatever but the way people are talking about him now is proper nasty and it feels like they want a lifelong servant and a martyr and a local hero all at once and then turn on them the second they make a decision they dont like and honestly if i was him i would be gutted by the whole thing because the reaction has been so extreme and so weird and people need to calm down and remember he is a human being and not some loyalty test for strangers on the internet
 
The key issue is timing, not just the destination. A move to Real Madrid was always going to provoke a strong reaction, but the suspicion that he had mentally checked out long before leaving made it worse.
 
I do not buy the idea that fans are just being irrational here because the club identity matters and he was not some random squad player he was one of their own and that changes the whole mood when he leaves. People can condemn abuse and still admit the resentment came from somewhere
 
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