A year on from selling Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool now find themselves in the bizarre situation of having no senior centre-backs available less than a month out from the start of the Premier League season.
Joe Gomez and new arrival Jeremy Jacquet are currently nursing minor injuries, while Giovanni Leoni is continuing with his recovery from rupturing his ACL, and Virgil van Dijk is yet to return from his post-World Cup break.
That all left Andoni Iraola fielding the 18-year-old duo of Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe as the Reds’ centre-back partnership for most of the 4-2 win over Sunderland last weekend, and while they both impressed, the latter will have to go out on loan as he doesn’t qualify for a UK work permit.
When Liverpool sold Quansah last July, they included a buyback clause in the transaction, thus maintaining some control over his future.
However, it’s understood that they aren’t planning to activate that clause imminently, despite the severe shortage of centre-backs in Iraola’s squad at present.
Aadam Patel wrote for BBC Sport: ‘They have a buyback clause with Jarell Quansah, who left for Bayer Leverkusen for £35m last July, but there are no current plans for Quansah to return.’
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As explained by Liverpool Echo, Quansah’s buyback clause is set at £70m, twice what Leverkusen paid to sign him a year ago, although that’ll decrease to £52m from next summer.
That may be one reason why Anfield chiefs aren’t planning to bring the 23-year-old back to Merseyside, even with so many defenders unavailable. Van Dijk, Gomez and Jacquet should all return soon, but even then it feels as though centre-back depth is threadbare.
It could also be difficult to persuade the England international to leave his current club, where he said that he’s ‘started loving football again‘ after being – in the words of David Lynch – ‘so keen to leave [LFC] you would not believe it’.
It’s hard to blame Quansah for feeling that way when, in one season at Leverkusen, he’s had almost as much game-time as he accrued across his two prior campaigns in the Liverpool first team, and that regular action helped him to get into Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the World Cup.
If the chance to hold firm and save on £18m is the main reason why Anfield chiefs are reluctant to bring back the 23-year-old, that’d be an incredibly foolish stance to take when defensive options are in such short supply.
However, if there’s a recognition behind the scenes that trying to persuade the former Red to come back to Merseyside would be a futile venture, that’d be easier to justify in our current predicament.
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