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

A Brief Summary

Days after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave his childhood club, to go to the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was substantial. The new manager had taken over to replace the previous coach and a number of star performers were gone or going – including several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on 23 August at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the central defender found the net after the opening minutes, albeit the achievement was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after the opening moments, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah says. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been forgiven for wondering what he had signed up for at Leverkusen. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat and the following game on August 30th was just as bad. The squad threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was not Ten Hag's team for much longer. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If composure defines his game, it was evident during the interview he gave after joining the national team for the Wembley friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has kept his head down under the current coach, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he always intended to do at the club – compete. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have positive results in four league matches along with ties in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a more significant number that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is something that the England head coach has noted. The national team manager was a fan last season, including him when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in September when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was named at the beginning in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The dream is a debut. It is one more milestone he would certainly handle with ease.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the club were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not only from the coach," Quansah says. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So knowing it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with whatever coach was to take over ... it was easy for me to make that decision.

"We had a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have got a good squad with quality players. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a good place to start."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave his long-time club, his club from the age of five, where he enjoyed so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in the previous season when he came on as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of last season's domestic championship success. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the league, his limited playing time comparing unfavourably with his statistics from the prior season when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been so good for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you need games 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 top-level club, it's not promised because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at times but they will see beyond that and see I can keep pushing and improving."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls his loan to League One Bristol Rovers in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "multiple reality checks", he says with a grin, beginning with his first game; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I gained fresh insights. That's where I knew how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could suggest it informed my decision in the summer."