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"To an observer, it appears crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he reflects on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Quick Recap

Shortly after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah opted to depart from his childhood club, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a multi-million pound transfer.

The big fee equalled big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the turnover was substantial. Erik ten Hag had stepped in to succeed the previous coach and a host of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, established players and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the central defender scored after five minutes, though the achievement was overshadowed by sadness. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The player 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 narrow loss and the following game on 30 August was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at their reduced opponents, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was not Ten Hag's team for much longer. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If composure defines his game, it was on show during the interview he gave after being selected for England for the Wembley friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he always intended to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is something that Thomas Tuchel has observed. The national team manager 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 Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in September when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his international debut, Quansah must have done something right in training and around the camp because he was selected at the outset in the manager's 24‑man group for the upcoming matches, effectively as a additional defensive option with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a debut. It is one more milestone he would surely handle with ease.

Decision Making

"With my new club, the club were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not just 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 take over ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a numerous squad members leaving and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the results we have had [under Hjulmand] show that we have developed a competitive team with quality players. It is requiring patience to develop and we are not where we want to be. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a solid foundation to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave his long-time club, his club from the age of five, where he experienced so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of last season's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have chosen. He was an unused substitute on 25 occasions in the league, his limited playing time comparing unfavourably with his statistics from the prior season when he started nine games.

Career Development

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been incredibly beneficial for my professional development," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm will require hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"I just wanted game time and when you are at a top-level club, it's not promised because there are world-class players all over the pitch. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I could errors at certain moments but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a smile, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's where I knew how valuable experience and playing games was. You could say it informed my decision in the summer."