Like most others, I would have liked to have kept Quansah. Good player, home grown, there’s a lot to like. What was apparent was that he was going nowhere under Slot, so whatever he is now, he would not have become sitting on our bench. Selling him was fairly reasonable, under the circumstances, and the clauses we inserted to buy him back protected us a bit, in case he hit the stratosphere.
Well, he didn’t do that, and while he is clearly a good player, it would not be right to overstate that.
If we brought him back it would make sense. But equally, if we like our similar level options in Leoni and Jacquet, and we like our options in Ndukwe and Ndiaye below that, and we think Virg has more to give, and we signed Araujo as an experienced man to shore it up while the young breed come through… then maybe there is no room at the inn for Quansah?
I can live with that, though I would be sad to see him go to Arsenal.
That isn’t really the point. It’s about how you bench mark a value. I would point out that the clause based on the agreement between Leverkusen and Liverpool valued the player at €70m. I could also point out other deals through the summer for centre backs make that valuation a reasonable one.
I too would’ve been okay with keeping him. But the lamentations here are WAY overboard and does not reflect what folks were saying a while back, including in threads when he was traansferred…
And many forget that in his first real competitive game as Liverpool manager, Slot started him over Ibou…
Personally, I think we have superior talent in Leoni and Jaquet than Quansah. But only time will tell if this is indeed the case…
Ideally in his first competitive game under Slot, the man management would have been different. Half time comes around and Slot gives Quansah a rollicking, in the best way, telling him he is big, strong, fast and brilliant, and to get out there second half and not give Delap a sniff.
It might have been a sliding doors moment, but we will never know.
The bits Quansah saw after that, just a few crumbs, were unfortunate with cartoon sort of mistakes and some understandable jitters as he could not catch a break.
How can you compare those two to Quansah based on their playing time I assume but the latter has amassed 100 competitive games and we have not seen those two kick a ball for over a year?
OTOH, both of them are already struck with serious injuries that can have long-term impacts despite barely having significant top flight experience. Araujo is also quite injury prone. We may end up having three Joe Gomez. If they end up like Joe Gomez, I’d rather have Quansah.
Quansah definitely progressed nicely since moving to Leverkusen and have not been seriously injured yet. I expect him to get better this season. He is currently the ideal replacement for Gomez.
Neither of them played a full season, though, and neither played for top teams there.
Gomez was not initially injury prone, until he got a season-ending injury in around 2016. The same could easily happen to these two, with one having an ACL and one having a shoulder injury.
In recent weeks, Liverpool has weighed up whether Cody Gakpo could be sold. First the answer was yes, then no, and now it is yes again; the door appears to be open. Spurs want to make a move, and Gakpo is definitely open to the move. The former PSV player could still net PSV a tidy bonus of at least 3 million euros.
There are people who think he shouldn’t have been sold. His half time substitution was the first nail in his coffin as a Liverpool player, and in my view was a poor piece of management and judgement. Of course he made mistakes. What defender learning his trade doesn’t?
Your use of the word lamentation is bordering on patronising by the way. People can voice the opinion that he shouldn’t have been sold with a degree of calm reflection. Not lamentation.
I am talking about the current Quansah at Leverkusen (which is still a bigger club than Rennes and Parma). And even at Liverpool, Quansah did become a starter during the latter half of Klopp’s last season.
Yeah, that’s the thing that surprises me. There are a number of factors, including an agreed fee between Liverpool and Leverkusen this summer that could have justified a higher fee.