England Euro 2024: The two Liverpool players failed to make the final 26-man squad but they shouldn’t be downbeat.
England’s final 26-man squad will not have either of the talented Liverpool duo Jarell Quansah and Curtis Jones – but the future is bright for both stars for differing reasons.
Gareth Southgate has the unenviable task of shortening his 33-man preliminary squad to 26 players and with a huge amount of quality across the board, it is just unfortunate that some players have to miss out. While the full list is yet to be released, we’ve decided to focus on the Liverpool duo (valued at a combined £49m) who have missed out.
Quansah has gone from an outside squad player to the England squad within one season. Prior to that, he had featured just 16 times at senior level for Bristol Rovers. It’s a remarkable story and one that wouldn’t have happened without a bit of luck; Joel Matip’s unfortunate long-term injury allowed Quansah to pick up the extra games across all competitions and he impressed in every competition he found himself in.
Only 21, he has a huge future ahead of him. His physical gifts are complimented by a brilliant ball-playing ability and the biggest surprise was how at ease how looked in his debut campaign. He even managed to start ahead of Ibrahim Konate on several occasions and the Frenchman is now lining up for France as a starting centre-back.
With the likes of Harry Maguire and John Stones in their 30’s, it won’t be long before the next batch of defenders come through at centre-back. The likes of Jarrad Branthwaite, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa and Fikayo Tomori are all chomping at the bit to be involved and in the years to come, if Quansah can continue his development, he will be right up there as one of England’s best options in that position. This is just the beginning.
