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"To an observer, it appears crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he looks back on his recent summer, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Days after winning the European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah decided to leave his childhood club, to join Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The significant transfer sum brought high expectations as the 22-year-old was tasked with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the turnover was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to succeed Xabi Alonso and a host of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, experienced professionals, established players and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at home to their opponents and the central defender found the net after five minutes, albeit the goal was overshadowed by sadness. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is definitely a whirlwind," 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 committed to at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he gave after joining the national team for the international friendly against their rivals and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Quansah has kept his head down under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the team – compete. Hjulmand has brought stability. His team have three wins and one draw in four league matches along with ties 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 fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The England head coach was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. After leaving him out in the summer so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in training and around the camp because he was selected at the beginning in the manager's squad selection for the upcoming matches, effectively as a additional defensive option with the regular starter returning. The dream 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 explains. "They were interested 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 make that decision.

"There were a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been difficult to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] show that we have developed a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are getting results and avoiding defeats that is a good place to start."

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 came on as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also involved in the previous campaign's domestic championship success. Yet his view of much of that was not the perspective he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his numbers from the prior season when he started nine games.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my professional development," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience 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 guaranteed because there are world-class players throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can trust that I could errors at times but they will see beyond that and see I can keep pushing and improving."

Foundation Building

Quansah recalls his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he made his first senior appearances – multiple matches, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a smile, starting with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at their opponents.

"That represented 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 learned something new. That's where I understood how valuable experience and match practice was. You could say it informed my choice in the off-season."