By Scott Wilson, Chief Sports Writer
When the transfer window reopens in January, Newcastle United will attempt to sign a new right winger. In a different world, however, they would already have the one they are going to be coming up against this weekend.
Yankuba Minteh is exactly the type of player Newcastle will be targeting at the start of next year – young, athletic, direct, creative – indeed the Magpies recognised all those qualities when they signed him from Danish club Odense in the summer of 2023. Yet when the 20-year-old lines up at St James’ Park on Saturday, he will be wearing the away kit of Brighton rather than the black-and-white of Newcastle. Already, he looks like one that got away.
Why? The Newcastle hierarchy will point to the Premier League’s PSR regulations and claim they were backed into a corner and forced to sell Minteh for £30m at the end of June to ensure they avoided a points penalty. There is merit to their argument, but it absolves them of blame when, had they acted differently and taken earlier action to address the imbalance in their accounts, they might have been able to come up with a solution that did not involve the sale of a player who, while still unproven, was already turning heads in some of Europe’s most analytically-savvy clubs.
Brighton’s recruitment operation is rightly lauded for its ability to spot emerging potential at an early stage, enabling the club to recruit players who then go on to become huge assets. The Seagulls’ metrics flagged up Minteh as one of the most exciting young talents in Europe, hence their willingness to break their club record to sign him.
Yet while Brighton felt they knew what they were getting when they signed the Gambia international, there was always a sense that Newcastle never really grasped the scale of the talent they had on their hands. Eddie Howe was non-committal when speaking about Minteh at the start of the summer, and while he has subsequently bemoaned the need to sell both Minteh and Anderson, the general feeling is that he was more perturbed by the loss of the latter. Had Minteh remained on Newcastle’s books this summer, there is a good chance he would have been sent away on a second season-long loan.
Brighton won’t be ushering him through the exit door anytime soon, with their head coach, Fabian Hurzeler, a huge fan of the winger.
“He (Minteh) has big potential,” said the Brighton boss. “It’s not only his offensive skills, it’s also how he works against the ball, how he reacts when he loses the ball. It’s something where we as a team are really happy about him.
“I think he’s a good listener. He tries to listen, and then immediately he goes to the pitch and tries to do what you say to him. That’s a very good attitude, and he has a good character. He’s always on the pitch, he’s really resilient.”
Minteh’s statistics back up Hurzeler’s view. He has started five of Brighton’s seven league games so far – he was a substitute in the other two – and scored his first Premier League goal in the 3-2 win over Tottenham that preceded the international break.
He has provided one league assist – the same number as Harvey Barnes, and one more than Anthony Gordon has managed so far this term – and boasts an xA (expected assists) figure of 1.36, suggesting he has been even more effective than his basic stats indicate. And all of this from a player who had not played a minute of Premier League football prior to the start of the season.
Minteh had, of course, spent a season in the Eredivisie with Feyenoord, playing under current Liverpool boss Arne Slot, and his 11 goals and six assists in the Dutch top-flight highlighted his qualities.
His running stats also stood out, with his willingness to close down opponents and kick-start a high press ticking some of the key boxes that most coaches now regard as fundamental components of a winger’s arsenal. Ironically, they are qualities that Howe regards as essential within his Newcastle team. As a result, Brighton’s recruitment specialists couldn’t believe that the Magpies were willing to sell him.
“Brighton have been really pleased with him,” said Brian Owen, a sports writer who covers the Seagulls for the Brighton Argus. “When he signed, the early indications were that he would be integrated into the first team slowly, but it hasn’t really been like that at all. (Simon) Adingra was such a key player last season, so the fact Minteh is playing ahead of him says everything really.
“He’s the archetypal modern-day winger. He’s such a pest to opposition players, and I think that’s why Brighton’s manager rates him so highly. He’s quickly become very important to the way the team plays.
“He’s still raw. His first touch and end delivery aren’t always the best, and you can see that sometimes he takes the wrong options. But he makes things happen, and he’s really good at pressing and hassling defenders.
“The pre-season trip to Japan was important to him, because it gave him the chance to get into the team and make a positive impression straight away. Then in the first game of the season, against Everton, he got a whack in the head while chasing back and went off with a concussion. That was seen as a potential setback at the time, but actually, I think it just confirmed to everyone what type of player he was. The fact he was there putting his head in went down really well.”
While he has been away on international duty with Gambia this week, scoring an equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Madagascar before setting up Musa Barrow’s winner in a 1-0 victory over the same opposition, he is expected to start for Brighton as they look to win at St James’ at the weekend.
Howe will no doubt seek to downplay the significance of his return to Tyneside, Already, though, his exit is starting to look like a damaging mistake from a Newcastle point of view.
thenorthernecho.co.uk
