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A player who leaves and improves is a particular kind of problem for the clubs that wanted him. The move that was supposed to be a development loan in all but name becomes a shop window, and the buying club that missed out in June is reading the same reports as everyone else by October. Interest does not expire. The clause that can end it does.
Buy-back options are built for this moment. They sit quietly while a defender finds minutes in another league, then become the only number that matters once a bigger club starts watching. The original seller does not have to want him back every week. It only has to decide once.
That decision is worse for anyone still hoping to bid. A rejected offer in one summer does not reserve the player for the next. It just means the queue has got longer, and someone else may hold the right to step to the front.
Jarell Quansah is back in that queue. He left Liverpool for Bayer Leverkusen in July 2025 in a deal worth £35million, found consistent minutes in the Bundesliga, and earned a place in England’s 2026 World Cup squad as a right-back option for Thomas Tuchel. That role has continued into this international break. Arsenal were heavily linked last summer and had a bid rejected. No transfer followed.
Real Madrid are now said to be interested. Sky Sports Germany has confirmed that Madrid scouts have been regularly monitoring him at Leverkusen, and that the club see him as a high-potential, long-term solution in defence.
SPORTBILD noted that he and Jude Bellingham are close friends in the national team. Premier League clubs have not gone away. Chelsea and Arsenal are still named among them, and Liverpool have kept watching their former player.
The obstacle is the buy-back. Liverpool hold an option worth €70million, about £59million, which expires on 15 June 2027. SPORTBILD has suggested it would be a surprise if that clause were not activated, with several clubs ready to move.
For Arsenal, that is the uncomfortable part of a chase that already failed once. A bid turned down last summer does not get cheaper because Madrid have joined it. If Liverpool exercise the option, the conversation ends before another offer can be made. If they do not, Arsenal are back in a race they have already lost, with Chelsea and Real Madrid still in it.