‘No-brainer’ – John Aldridge urges Liverpool to bring back £56m beast to replace Anfield legend | OneFootball

John Aldridge has urged Liverpool to consider re-signing one former player to replace a legendary figure in the current squad.

Jarell Quansah was sold to Bayer Leverkusen in July 2025 in a £35m deal (Sky Sports), with the transaction including a buyback clause which currently sits at £56m.

The defender has already played more minutes for the Bundesliga outfit (4,039) than he managed throughout his time in the LFC first team (3,784), and that regular game-time in Germany helped him to get into England’s World Cup squad in the summer.

Aldridge implores Liverpool to bring back Quansah

In his latest column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge made the case for his former club to bring back the 23-year-old as a replacement for Virgil van Dijk, if the captain leaves at the end of his contract next June.

The ex-Reds striker wrote: ‘You know what I’d do? I’d be looking to bring back Jarell Quansah. There’s a £56m buyback option on him and, for me, it’s a no-brainer. Next season, if Virgil goes, you’re looking at it and we could have [Ronald] Araujo, [Jeremy] Jacquet, [Giovanni] Leoni and Quansah. That’s four great options.

‘Arne Slot didn’t fancy Quansah after that first game of the [2024/25] season against Ipswich. It showed as he didn’t really play him, didn’t really fancy him, but he’s proved Arne wrong.

‘He’s gone to Leverkusen and is doing really well. He’s playing well for England. For me, you need four really good centre-halves.’

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Aldridge added: ‘It’s a no-brainer to get Quansah back next year. Absolutely, 100%. 100%, man. As long as he wants to come. He’s a Warrington lad. I hope he’s a Liverpudlian, and if that’s the case, there’s no reason not to go and get him.

‘Liverpool has the buyback. If they want him, they have to go and get him. Then next year, centre-halves-wise, we’d be really solid.’

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Are Liverpool likely to re-sign Quansah?

Could Quansah be a realistic option for Liverpool to re-sign if they sense an opportunity to do so?

David Lynch wrote of how eager the 23-year-old was to move on from Anfield while Slot was head coach, but with Andoni Iraola now in the dugout, the defender might be a bit more receptive to a return to his boyhood club if the Reds try to bring him back.

However, it seems more likely that the England international would want to remain loyal to Leverkusen, where he has been given the chance to play regularly and earn his place in Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions selection.

The ideal scenario is, of course, that Van Dijk extends his contract, Araujo’s loan from Barcelona becomes permanent, Leoni makes a full recovery from his ACL injury, Jacquet continues to excel and Mor Talla Ndiaye returns from his loan spell at Levante.

Some of those mightn’t end up happening, but hopefully Liverpool will go into next season without any pressing need to sign a centre-back, a position where they could be quite well-covered if everything goes to plan.

Nevertheless, if a plausible opportunity to exercise the buyback clause on Quansah were to come up, it’ll be interesting to see if the Reds activate it.