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"From the outside, it appears insane," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... 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 join the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought high expectations as the young defender was charged with settling in in a new country and at a club where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace Xabi Alonso and a number of key players were gone or going – including several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, established players and team leaders.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after five minutes, albeit the goal was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, 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 five minutes, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a tribute to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at Leverkusen. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they fell to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on August 30th was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team threw away comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

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

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, Kasper Hjulmand, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the team – compete. Hjulmand has brought stability. His squad have three wins and one draw in four league matches 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 something that the England head coach has observed. The national team manager was a fan previously, including him when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in September when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Yet to earn his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in training and around the camp because he was named at the outset in Tuchel's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a fifth centre-back with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a debut. It is another thing he would certainly take in his stride.

Decision Making

"With my new club, the club were interested in me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So knowing it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with whatever coach was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have got a good squad with quality players. It is going to take time to build and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a good place to begin from."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from 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 Chelsea in the previous season when he came on as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also involved in last season's domestic championship success. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the one he would have chosen. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the competition, his limited playing time falling short compared to his numbers from the prior season when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I've always learned off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm will require extensive playing time to be at my desired level.

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can trust that I might make mistakes at certain moments but they will see beyond that and recognize 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 made his first senior appearances – 16 of them, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his debut; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to regular senior competition. Each match I learned something new. That's where I understood how crucial experience and match practice was. You could say it informed my decision in the off-season."