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"To an observer, it seems insane," Jarell Quansah says, as he reflects 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 winning the European Under-21 Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah opted to depart from Liverpool, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The significant transfer sum brought big pressure as the young defender was charged with finding his feet in a new country and at a team where the turnover was substantial. The new manager had taken over to succeed the previous coach and a number of key players were gone or going – chief among them Florian Wirtz, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at home to Hoffenheim and the central defender scored after five minutes, though the goal was undercut by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed 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 rollercoaster," Quansah states. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The player could have been forgiven for wondering what he had signed up for at the German club. From the promising start in their first league game, they fell to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was equally disappointing. The squad threw away comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for much longer. He was sacked on September 1st.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If composure characterizes his playing style, it was on show during the interview he gave after joining England for the international friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier 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 team – play. Hjulmand has brought stability. His squad 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 motivates the player, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has observed. The national team manager was a fan previously, including him when he named his first squad. After omitting him in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a late call-up in the autumn when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in training and within the squad environment because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's 24‑man group for the upcoming matches, effectively as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would surely take in his stride.

Decision Making

"With my new club, the team were keen on signing me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "They were interested before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and things would remain consistent with which manager was to take over ... it was easy for me to make that decision.

"We had a numerous squad members leaving and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had recently show that we have got a good squad with talented individuals. It is going to take time to build and we are not where we want to be. But if we are getting results and avoiding defeats that is a good place to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to depart from his long-time club, his club from the age of five, where he experienced so many significant occasions – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals 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 perspective he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his limited playing time comparing unfavourably with his statistics from the prior season when he featured more regularly.

Career Development

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been so good for my career," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time 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 an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "multiple reality checks", he notes with a grin, starting with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable part of my career because I aimed to take the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's where I knew how valuable experience and playing games was. You could say it influenced my decision in the summer."