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"To an observer, it appears insane," Jarell Quansah says, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "However, that's just how it goes ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Days after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with the English national team at the conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from his childhood club, to go to the Bundesliga side in a multi-million pound transfer.

The significant transfer sum equalled high expectations as the young defender was tasked with settling in in a foreign land and at a club where the turnover was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace Xabi Alonso and a number of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, Jeremie Frimpong, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at their home ground to their opponents and the centre-half found the net after the opening minutes, though the goal was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect.

"To have a goal on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after the opening moments, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The player could have been excused for questioning what he had committed to at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their first league game, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was just as bad. The squad squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If composure defines his game, it was on show during the conversation he participated in after joining the national team for the international friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the team – compete. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their European matches. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has played every minute of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has observed. 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 provided him with a last-minute inclusion in September when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was named at the beginning in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The dream is a debut. It is one more milestone he would certainly take in his stride.

Decision Making

"With my new club, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not just from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So knowing it was a type of internal decision and things would remain consistent with which manager was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to make that decision.

"There were a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to build and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a solid foundation to start."

Leaving Childhood Club

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

Quansah was also involved in the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his view of most of that achievement was not the one he would have chosen. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his limited playing time falling short compared to his statistics from 2023‑24 when he featured more regularly.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my professional development," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you need games and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"My primary desire was game time and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not promised because there are world-class players all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will see beyond that and see I can continue developing and improving."

Foundation Building

Quansah recalls his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he made his first senior appearances – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "multiple reality checks", he notes with a grin, starting with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It was a really valuable part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I gained fresh insights. That's when I knew how valuable experience and match practice was. You could say it informed my choice in the off-season."