‘He was so keen to leave’ – Journalist says ex-Liverpool player couldn’t wait to get out of Anfield

One former Liverpool player was seemingly ‘so keen to leave’ the club last year before ultimately getting his wish.

There was significant movement both into and out of Anfield in the summer transfer window, with a number of those who’d helped the Reds to Premier League glory departing after Arne Slot’s first season at the helm.

One of those was Jarell Quansah, who made only four top-flight starts under the Dutchman and joined Bayer Leverkusen in a £35m deal at the start of July (Sky Sports), and he’s already played far more minutes this term than last (1,663 to 1,290).

Quansah was ‘so keen to leave’ Liverpool

While some may be questioning that decision now that Liverpool have been reduced to only three senior centre-backs, David Lynch stressed that the 22-year-old was itching to move on from Merseyside in search of more regular game-time elsewhere.

The journalist told Anfield Index: “The Quansah one, you know he’s doing well out in Germany but I don’t think anybody sat there kind of saying they’re absolutely full of regrets that he went.

“It really does it kind of gets ignored massively – he was so keen to leave you would not believe it. Worth noting that he’s not a boyhood Liverpool fan; you could sense it at the back end of last season that he wanted to leave.

“People think because he’s a local lad – you know, he’s only from Warrington and, you know, he’d been at Liverpool for such a long time – that he would only possibly have wanted to leave because he’d be forced out by a manager who doesn’t like him.

“He wanted to leave because he wanted to play football and Liverpool could not offer him that or couldn’t offer him enough football that would have satisfied him.”

Liverpool had to do what they thought was best

Quansah had forced his way into Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI towards the end of the German’s reign, but having been unceremoniously substituted at half-time in Slot’s first game in charge in August 2024, he never truly recovered his place in the team thereafter.

It’s easy to be wise in hindsight and say that Liverpool should’ve done more to try and hold onto the centre-back, but if his desire to leave was as burning as Lynch suggests, then it was always going to be quite difficult to keep him at Anfield.

Nobody was to know at the time that Giovanni Leoni would suffer a cruel ACL injury or that a deadline-day move for Marc Guehi would collapse so dramatically, although there are lessons in all of that for the LFC hierarchy to take on board in the future.

As reported by Lewis Steele, Liverpool did insert a buyback clause into the deal which saw Quansah join Leverkusen, so that gives the Reds an element of control if they wish to bring the 22-year-old back to Merseyside at a later stage.

Considering how this season has played out, Slot could certainly have done with having the England international in his squad, but last summer it would’ve been difficult to turn down £35m for a player who was seemingly desperate to move on to pastures new.

Should he wish to return further down the line, the defender would be warmly welcomed back at Anfield.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Barnsley press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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