‘I think…’ – Sami Hyypia assesses Liverpool’s decision to sell Quansah amid centre-back worries | OneFootball

It’s now been almost a full month since Liverpool sold Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen, a decision which might be a cause of regret for Reds supporters.

As per Sky Sports, the defender joined the Bundesliga runners-up for an initial £30m (plus £5m in potential add-ons), with the transfer including a buyback clause for a ‘pre-agreed fee’.

The 22-year-old’s exit left Arne Slot with just three senior centre-backs, and those options have been further diminished by an injury to Joe Gomez which has seen him fly home from LFC’s pre-season tour to Asia.

Hyypia philosophical about Liverpool’s decision to sell Quansah

Sami Hyypia has taken a philosophical stance on the decision to sell Quansah, saying that the Warrington native needs to be playing on a weekly basis and talking up the possibility of exercising the buyback clause if he impresses with Leverkusen.

The former Reds captain told the Liverpool Echo: “I think it is good for Jarell to play every week [in Germany]. He is in that age where he needs to play every week and probably if he stayed here that wouldn’t be possible.

“I heard that we have a buyback clause, so when he is playing every week and he develops, I think we can [bring him back]. It would be a good thing to bring him back and he would be a different player.

(Photo by Christian Hofer/Getty Images)

“When you play every week, you somehow create like a bigger confidence as well than when you play here or there and when someone is injured. For younger players that can be a little bit overwhelming and you are trying too hard and you are maybe a little bit too nervous in that situation and you don’t get the level that you can perform.

“If one year he plays there every week, then maybe we can bring him back, but I guess this summer we still need one centre-back added, so it will be interesting to see. It is probably [a risk not to sign another central defender].”

Were Liverpool too hasty in selling Quansah?

With the benefit of hindsight, it’d easy to condemn Liverpool for selling Quansah at the start of July, particularly when we hadn’t (and still haven’t) signed a replacement for him.

It wasn’t unforeseeable that the Reds would see their already threadbare centre-back selection further decimated by injury, and nor does it help that Ibrahima Konate’s future is far from secure – Lewis Steele has rated the Frenchman’s chances of staying at Anfield for the new season as ‘50-50‘.

The 22-year-old’s move to Leverkusen also made it even more challenging for LFC to meet homegrown quota criteria for their Premier League and European squads, particularly when Trent Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher had also departed earlier in the summer and others who stayed outgrew their underage exemption.

(Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images)

However, we know that the Liverpool hierarchy tend not to make transfer decisions frivolously and would’ve been aware of the possible implications of selling Quansah at the time of the transaction.

Perhaps FSG felt that £35m was an attractive deal for a player who rarely started last season, and if the defender had been massively keen on making the move to Germany, then the club mightn’t have wanted to stand in his way.

As Hyypia rightly says, the buyback option at least provides the Merseysiders with something of a safety net, should they decide further down the line that he could still do a job for his boyhood team.

In the meantime, his performances at Leverkusen will be compelling to watch, and hopefully we won’t have cause to massively regret his departure at a later stage.