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"From the outside, it seems crazy," 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 crazy game."

A Brief Summary

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

The significant transfer sum brought high expectations as the 22-year-old was charged with settling in in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace the previous coach and a host of key players were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, Jeremie Frimpong, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, established players and team leaders.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after the opening minutes, though the goal was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature 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 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 opening league fixture, they fell to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on August 30th was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If calmness defines his game, it was on show during the interview 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 new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the club – play. The new manager has brought stability. His squad have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their European matches. But there is a more significant number that motivates the player, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

International Recognition

It is something that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The England head coach was a fan last season, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The dream is a debut. It is one more milestone he would certainly handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the club were interested in me for a while and that's not just from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah says. "Their interest existed prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players departing and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the results we have had recently show that we have developed a good squad with quality players. It is going to take time to build and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a good place to start."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his club from the age of five, 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 late replacement.

Quansah was also a part of last season's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the one he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his limited playing time falling short compared to his numbers from the prior season when he featured more regularly.

Professional Growth

"I consistently developed off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you need games and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time 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 trust that I might make mistakes at certain moments but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls 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 exact. There were "multiple reality checks", he notes with a smile, beginning with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That represented a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It was a really valuable chapter in my development because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I learned something new. That's where I knew how crucial experience and playing games was. You could say it informed my decision in the summer."