Liverpool could use buy-back clause to solve defensive crisis
Liverpool could turn to a buy-back clause inserted in the sale of Jarell Quansah to solve their defensive woes.
Quansah left the club last summer for Bayer Leverkusen last summer for £30 million.
Inserted into the sale was a £65 million buy-back clause that would allow a bid to be accepted by Leverkusen from Liverpool at this price.
According to reports in Germany, Liverpool could bring the 23-year-old back after just a season away.
🚨 Liverpool are showing the STRONGEST interest in bringing Jarell Quansah back to Anfield, despite interest from Newcastle United and Tottenham. 👀
The Bayer Leverkusen centre-back has emerged as a target for both Premier League clubs, but Liverpool are currently leading the… pic.twitter.com/wrTEHjM51q
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) August 2, 2026
Quansah played 58 times for the Liverpool first team, including 30 times in the Premier League and looked set to be given a chance under Arne Slot as Virgil van Dijk’s defensive partner. He started the opening game of the 2024/25 season, but was pulled off at halftime after a disappointing first half.
The financial sense in the deal
While on paper this deal would seem like Liverpool are making a £35m loss on if they had just kept the player last season but the nuances of football finances actually do make this make sense.
Last season when Quansah left the £30 million transfer fee could be used as ‘pure profit’. In finance terms that means that every penny of the transfer fee could be used positively in Liverpool’s PSR calculation over the next three seasons.
If Quansah was to be signed back this summer, even for a fee of £65 million the implications for financial fair player and PSR restrictions wouldn’t actually be as severe. Due to transfer amortisation (the spreading of the transfer fee across the length of a contract), the financial implications will be minimal for the revenue of the football club.
The standard length of contract for a player of Quansah’s age will be roughly five years. This means that Liverpool will only be putting roughly £13 million of the transfer fee to their financial spending restrictions per year.
The other bonus for Liverpool is that they already know the player well, how hard he works and he already has friendships and partnerships within the club. These are all things that clubs have to factor in when making a big money transfer.
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