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"To an observer, it appears insane," Jarell Quansah remarks, 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 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 Bayer Leverkusen in a multi-million pound transfer.

The big fee equalled big pressure as the young defender was charged with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was dramatic. The new manager had taken over to replace the previous coach and a host of key players were gone or going – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after five minutes, though the goal was overshadowed by tragedy. His primary thought was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after the opening moments, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling 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. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they succumbed 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 10-man Werder Bremen, the tying goal coming in added time. It was no longer his responsibility for much longer. He was sacked on September 1st.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If calmness defines his game, it was on show during the conversation he participated in after being selected for the national team for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the team – play. The new manager has established consistency. 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 motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the team's season.

International Recognition

It is something that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The national team manager was a admirer previously, 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 the autumn when the experienced defender was forced to withdraw.

Still to win 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 additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would certainly handle with ease.

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. "Their interest existed prior to his arrival. 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.

"There were a numerous squad members leaving and it's always tough 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 competitive team with quality players. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a solid foundation to start."

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 significant occasions – such as the league cup triumph over Chelsea in the previous season when he was introduced as an late replacement.

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 preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on multiple matches in the competition, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his numbers from the prior season when he featured more regularly.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been so good for my professional development," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you need games 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 promised because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at times but they will look under that and see I can continue developing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan to League One Bristol Rovers in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a grin, starting with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's when I understood how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could suggest it informed my decision in the off-season."