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Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah(Image: MB Media/Getty Images)

The more cynical observer would suggest the timing made it a classic tit-for-tat transfer tale.

And they'd probably be right.

Newcastle United's reported interest in signing Jarell Quansah from Liverpool arrived mere days after the rumour mill cranked up the possibility of the Magpies' star striker Alexander Isak heading to Anfield - encouraged, it must be said, by slightly ambiguous comments from the striker himself over his long-term future.



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With less than two months until the end of the Premier League season, already the wheels are starting to whir into motion about what for some is the highlight of the football calendar every year - the summer transfer window.

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Of course, there's some credence to Newcastle's interest in Quansah given they asked about the availability of the centre-back last summer when briefly attempting to offload Anthony Gordon to Liverpool.

They were given short shrift over that deal, with sights eventually trained on Joe Gomez.

And, should Newcastle make formal any renewed interest in Quansah, they will almost certainly be given a similar response with the Reds planning on having the 22-year-old in their squad next season.

Indeed, Quansah only signed a new long-term contract in October after an impressive breakthrough campaign last term.

Matters haven't been quite so straightforward for Quansah this season under new head coach Arne Slot, not helped by being hooked at half-time of the Premier League opener at Ipswich Town.

He has subsequently started just one top-flight match.

But his recent outings, both as right-back, from the bench in the Champions League loss to Paris Saint-German and as a starter in the League Cup final slump against Newcastle United underlined both Quansah's versatility and the improved form that saw him called up for England's World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia.

“I see in training sessions that he’s back to being the same Jarell as he was in pre-season," said Slot last month.

“I think he had a bit of a hard time after being taken off at Ipswich, and then the first two or three games after that when he came in he was also in a bit of a struggle.

“But he’s just showing now what he’s shown in the last two or three months, on the training pitch but also when he comes in, that he’s back to his old level."

The Quansah rumours also once again bring into sharp focus the fact that, for a team 12 points clear at the Premier League summit with nine games remaining, the summer will be one of uncertainty rather than the reassurance usually brought by being strong favourites to win such major silverware.

However, the successive setbacks against PSG and Newcastle, and the subsequent vacuum due to a lack of fixtures, has prompted a bizarre reappraisal of huge swathes of the Liverpool team that suggests there are major issues that need to be addressed.

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This quite simply is revisionism before the event has even taken place and, in some quarters, a concerted attempt to undermine the imminent achievement of the Reds that in truth nobody had anticipated would happen so soon after Jurgen Klopp's departure.

Nevertheless, it will be a summer of delayed change for Liverpool, with the inevitable evolution that may have been expected 12 months earlier with the arrival of a new manager now set to take place.
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