A tale of two departures
Sky's nauseating farewell to Trent Alexander-Arnold was followed by Gary Lineker exiting stage left on BBC.
It was a tale of two farewells on UK television on Sunday.
In the afternoon, as Liverpool finally got handed the Premier League trophy and for the first time able to parade it in front of a full stadium of fans, Sky Sports were instead keen to ride the Trent Alexander-Arnold farewell train to almost nauseating levels.
With the title in the bag for a while now, the narrative quickly switched to his departure from the club to the as of yet unnamed Real Madrid, which he announced to the world in a carefully manufactured goodbye video to the fans in early May ahead of a month long farewell tour after 20 years at the club, which he joined at 6-years-old and ended up winning everything with.
That all upended when, as he entered the fray against Arsenal, Trent was met with an unholy chorus of boos that shocked even the most hardened of football pundits, teammates and ex-players. The discourse dominated proceedings across football media right until the final seconds of Sunday’s final day coverage as Liverpool danced and pranced around Anfield with the league title, in a seemingly never-ending quibble between those who were aghast at the reactionary response and those who supported it — especially locals and hardened Scousers who lobbied that “nobody can tell us what to think”.
It even prompted Jurgen Klopp to rear up at a LFC Foundation event on Friday night and launch into a staunch defence of his former player, saying that he couldn’t have been more disappointed with the response at Anfield that day and promptly turned off the television in disgust.
Instead of sharing the love on Sunday, the Sky cameramen were planted firmly on Alexander-Arnold duty. Anything else was a unwarranted distraction and needless formalities. We care not for Kostas Tsimikas hot-stepping it round the trophy and once the pleasantries of Mo Salah’s individual awards were out of the way, and when the post-title interviews with Virgil van Dijk and Salah were in the books, the focus was firmly on the local lad. And boy did he deliver in Oscar-worthy fashion.
Appearing stone-faced at first, Sky described him as “emotional” but were clearly wishing for the waterworks to explode. As the Kop faithful boomed a triumphant rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” in front of the players and staff at the club, switching occasionally to Klopp and Steven Gerrard in the stands, the camera was zoomed right into the tear wells of Trent, and when the anthem was over with he sat solemnly on the ground staring into space, either wondering with a tinge of regret if he had made the wrong decision leaving all this glory behind, or else thinking this pause for reflection would look great for the cameras.
Indeed, as Liverpool continued their trophy celebrations in a lap of the Anfield pitch, Daniel Sturridge was sent microphone in hand as Sky’s roving reporter with the players. And by roving reporter, they obviously meant Chief Trent Correspondent as he spoke only to one player — Trent — who dished out the the usual platitudes that seemed rehearsed in the inside of his eyelids, the same lines he extended to players on the training ground during the week. When the opportunity came to escape his former teammate’s prying, by jumping into a team photo, he hurriedly jostled in next to the Premier League trophy, once again front and centre for the cameras.
And then Sky got their wish. As the families of the players rolled onto the pitch, Trent found his mother and that, to the absolute delight of the Sky production squad, sent him into hysterics. As he hugged his mother, brother and extended family, the tears flowed, finally a moment of weakness above all the PR spin and banality that followed his hopeful departure into the sun since a month ago.
This, finally, was a player relinquishing the core of his emotions. Teary-eyed, arm-in-arm with the family that just a few miles away in West Derby helped carry the little 6-year-old to and from training sessions at the club’s academy and helped develop him all the way to where he is today, a Liverpool legend, two-time Premier League winner and European Cup winner, and one of the most beloved local boys to ever grace the club. The fans that adored him gave him a respectful send off but won’t shed too many tears for the little lad who had it all in his local city, an icon and legendary figure, is choosing to leave it behind.
With a tinge of regret or not, it’s hard to envision a scenario where these moments could ever be replicated except in the arena where he saw his dreams come true.
Meanwhile, on the other channel, a far more understated goodbye was unfolding. We said farewell, slightly prematurely, to Gary Lineker, who leaves the BBC shores after 26 years at the helm of its flagship Match of The Day program.
He quickly made the role his own back in 1999 when he moved into the hotseat vacated by Des Lynam, building up a rapport with fellow pundits, with a self-effacing humour and clever analysis that, as the years went on, helped lift the outlook of the show away from the traditional tenor of sports presenting.
Although he was already leaving the show, he was expected back in the summer of 2026 for the World Cup and was also due to be part of the BBC’s FA Cup coverage throughout the 2025/26 season, but bosses came to the decision to end it officially as of Sunday night.
The move was exacerbated last week when Lineker, continuing his outspoken charge against the devastation facing the people of Gaza, shared a clip entitled "Zionism explained in two minutes” which included a graphic of a rat, which he seemed to overlook, an image that has extremely negative connotations and has been used to represent Jewish people in antisemitic propaganda going back to Nazi Germany.
Lineker apologised unreservedly for sharing it, saying he was unaware of the reference and that it was a mistake. He maintained the importance of "speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza".
Indeed, as mainstream media and column inches lit up at Lineker and other notable public figures who have had lamentable missteps in their efforts to highlight the near-daily destruction and devastation of the people of Gaza, these missteps are now part of the force for distraction and muddying of waters that are already tinged with the blood of many children and women.
The reaction was swift. Column inches weren’t filled with the horrors he pointed to, they were filled with criticism, debate, and the age-old tactic of shooting the messenger. Lineker made a mistake, but as he became more vocal on the situation Gaza, pressure mounted on the BBC to move him along and this was their chance. Lineker, telling Amol Rajan that he suspected they “wanted me to leave” last month, routinely questioned their stance over issues in Palestine despite mounting devastation across the region.
As told by the BBC’s very own pages, from this weekend alone:
As Lineker signs-off one last time, a host who made the art of keeping it simple seem easy, the media sees it as an opportunity to play the man and not the ball, whilst BBC finally see it as their chance to cut ties with a host who God forbid “morphed into a presenter with opinions that he voiced on social media”.
A public figure speaking out is far easier to cover than the highly sensitive topic he is speaking about. The media ecosystem is far more comfortable interrogating the problem of Lineker than it is the uncomfortable reality of Western complicity, civilian casualties, and the complete moral failure of global leadership.
Within the machine of football, it has remained largely mute on Gaza, opting for campaigns against VAR over any statement on war. Clubs whose social media managers are quick to post rainbows or Ukraine flags have chosen the safe path of silence. A few voices — Mahmoud Dahoud, Anwar El Ghazi, Eric Cantona from the fringes — have spoken out and been swiftly sidelined or ignored.
Lineker, once the safest pair of hands in sports television, is now too prominent and risky for the BBC to handle.
In the end, Sky got their tears. The BBC got their brisk exit. And the rest of us got another day where the real story — the one without choreography, PR handlers or production cues — stayed largely untold in any meaningful sense.