John Aldridge wore the Liverpool shirt in the 1980s and has followed the club closely ever since. With Virgil van Dijk out of contract next summer, Aldridge believes it is obvious who will take over the place. That means correcting a mistake from Arne Slot.
Jarrell Quansah made his breakthrough at Anfield in the 2023/24 season, making 33 appearances that year, scoring the historic final goal of Jürgen Klopp’s long and successful Liverpool tenure. Then Slot entered the scene and gave the young centre-back just 13 Premier League appearances in the title season.
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According to Teamtalk , Slot was more than ready to approve Quansah’s exit when Bayer Leverkusen knocked on the door in 2025. The Bundesliga club targeted 40 million euros for the centre-back talent, the contract included a buy-back clause of 65 million euros with an option to sign in the summer of 2027.
For Aldridge, this should be a no-brainer for Liverpool.
“Do you know what I would do? I would look at bringing back Jarell Quansah. There’s a €65m buy-back option on him and for me that’s a no-brainer,” Aldridge told the Liverpool Echo.
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“Next season, if Virgil leaves, you look at it and we could have [Ronald] Araujo, [Jeremy] Jacquet, [Giovanni] Leoni and Quansah. There are four good options. Arne Slot was not interested in Quansah after the first game of the season [2024/25] against Ipswich. It showed in the fact that he didn’t really play him, wasn’t really interested in him, but he has proven Arne wrong. He’s gone to Leverkusen and he’s doing very well. He’s playing well for England. For me, you need four very good centre-backs,” Aldridge concluded.
Araujo. Jaquet. Leoni and Quansah. We’re guessing several Liverpool supporters agree with Aldridge that Liverpool need to bring back their former academy player. Real Madrid have also opened their eyes to the former Liverpool player. That says it all about the 23-year-old’s potential.
