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

A Quick Recap

Days after claiming victory in the U21 European 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 multi-million pound transfer.

The significant transfer sum equalled high expectations as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the churn was dramatic. The new manager had stepped in to replace the previous coach and a number of key players were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's first league appearance came on 23 August at their home ground to their opponents and the centre-half found the net after the opening minutes, though the achievement was undercut by sadness. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature celebration as a mark of respect.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a tribute to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The player could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at the German club. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they fell to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. The squad threw away comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. His dismissal came on September 1st.

Maintaining Composure

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

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he always intended to do at the club – play. The new manager has brought stability. His team have three wins and one draw in four league matches along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has been ever-present of the team's season.

International Recognition

It is one that the England head coach has observed. The England head coach was a fan last season, including him when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in the summer so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his first cap, Quansah must have done something right in training and around the camp because he was named at the outset in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a fifth centre-back with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is one more milestone he would surely take in his stride.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the team were keen on signing me for a considerable time and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "They were interested before he got appointed. So knowing it was a type 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 departing and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to establish new hierarchies but the results we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate that we have got a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to build and we are not where we want to be. 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 difficult separation for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his team since childhood, where he experienced so many significant occasions – 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 much of that was not the one he would have preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the competition, his four starts and nine appearances comparing unfavourably with his numbers from the prior season when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I consistently developed off top-level professionals around me at my former club and it's been so good for my career," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm will require 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 guaranteed because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted an environment 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 recalls his loan to League One Bristol Rovers in the second-half of 2022-23 where he made his first senior appearances – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a smile, beginning with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at their opponents.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It was a really valuable chapter in my development because I aimed to take the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's where I knew how crucial practical knowledge and match practice was. You could say it influenced my choice in the off-season."