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"From the outside, it appears crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Shortly after winning the U21 European Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to join Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a team where the turnover was substantial. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace the previous coach and a number of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after the opening minutes, though the achievement was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, at home, after the opening moments, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at the German club. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on 30 August was just as bad. The squad threw away comfortable advantages to finish level at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for much longer. His dismissal came on September 1st.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If composure defines his game, it was on show during the interview he gave after being selected for the national team for the international friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has brought stability. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that motivates the player, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has noted. The England head coach was a admirer last season, including him when he named his first squad. After omitting him in the summer so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's squad selection for the upcoming matches, essentially as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a debut. It is one more milestone he would certainly handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah says. "Their interest existed prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a type of organizational choice and things would remain consistent with which manager was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players departing and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with quality players. It is going to take time to develop and we are not where we want to be. But if we are getting results and not losing that is a solid foundation to begin from."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from his long-time club, his team since childhood, where he experienced so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea in the previous season when he was introduced as an late replacement.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's domestic championship success. Yet his view of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have chosen. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his limited playing time falling short compared to his numbers from 2023‑24 when he featured more regularly.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm will require hundreds of games to be where I want to be.

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not guaranteed because there are world-class players throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and see I can continue developing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – multiple matches, to be precise. There were "multiple reality checks", he says with a smile, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I aimed to take the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I learned something new. That's where I knew how valuable practical knowledge and playing games was. You could say it influenced my choice in the summer."