The competition for attacking spots at Brighton & Hove Albion has gone up a notch with Yankuba Minteh fit again. His 88th-minute substitute appearance in Friday’s 1-1 home draw against Southampton came after six matches on the sidelines.
Minteh’s absence from the first five of those games was caused by a muscle injury sustained on international duty with Gambia in October before sickness ruled him out of the 2-1 win at Bournemouth that preceded Southampton’s visit.
There is intense competition for places in Fabian Hurzeler’s team, particularly on the wings but Minteh, 20, featured in Brighton’s opening seven Premier League matches following his £30million ($38m) transfer from Newcastle United. He contributed a goal and an assist across those five starts and two substitute appearances.
Simon Adingra, Brajan Gruda — who was missing from the squad against Southampton due to illness — and the versatile duo of Georginio Rutter and Ferdi Kadioglu have been used on the right flank in Minteh’s absence.
Solly March, who has been sidelined for more than a year by serious knee damage, is another option, too, but it will be a while until he is back in the frame. During a press conference before the 1-0 win at Newcastle in October, Hurzeler cautioned that a comeback, limited so far to a 26-minute outing in the under-21s, would not “go in a linear way”.
That game against Newcastle marked the start of Minteh’s period on the sidelines. Up to that point, he had made a big impact, which was no surprise to Brighton, who had tracked one of the most exciting young attacking talents in Europe long before he signed.
They were rivals for Minteh’s signature when he joined Newcastle from Danish club Odense for around £6million in the summer of 2023. In June, when Newcastle needed to sell quickly to avoid the risk of breaching profit and sustainability regulations (PSR), Brighton were ready to pounce.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said in the pre-match press conference before Brighton’s visit that Newcastle “had no other option” but to sell Minteh, acknowledging that “it still hurts to have done it”. “We believed in his potential and everything about his profile fitted what we needed, but we had to make a decision based on finances,” Howe added.
Brighton paid a club-record-equaling fee for Minteh (subsequently overtaken by the £40million signing of Rutter from Leeds) convinced by his impressive form on loan from Newcastle to Feyenoord in the Dutch Eredivisie in 2023-24. Playing under now-Liverpool head coach Arne Slot, Minteh contributed 10 goals and five assists in 27 matches and competed for his place with ex-Brighton winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
“When he came in, he needed some time to settle into the team,” Iran international Jahanbakhsh told The Athletic over the summer regarding Minteh. “There were ups and downs for him, but as the season went on he got better and better.”
“He is very ambitious. In his last decisions and end product, he struggled a bit — but as time wore on, he improved. He was giving assists and scoring goals. For his age, he is a great player and a very nice guy, quite easygoing. We had a good time, even though we were competing for a place. I tried to help him a lot. He needs to be directed, to be talked to a lot. He will listen. He wants to learn.”
“He is very fast. I tried to tell him to calm down because with the pace he has, he can do a lot,” added Jahanbakhsh, who is still fondly remembered at Brighton for an overhead-kick equaliser against Chelsea at the Amex Stadium in 2020.
“England is totally different, he needs time. You are facing more quality players, the pace of the game is higher and you don’t create as much as in Eredivisie. If he adds on some other stuff — end product, which he already improved, decisions and being calmer — he will do very well at Brighton.”
Hurzeler has a similar opinion of Minteh’s potential.
“Minteh lives from his physicality,” the Brighton head coach said to The Athletic before the 3-2 home defeat against Slot’s Liverpool in the last-16 of the Carabao Cup at the end of October. “He is very fast, he plays very intense. If you already have this physicality inside of you and you are a sprinter, then it is a little bit easier to adapt in the Premier League, especially in his position.
“On top of that, he can improve in different phases: so more goals, more assists, be more active when the ball is far away, more precise in his passing, his first touch.
“He is a very young player. He has a great base to play in the Premier League. Now it is about improving the details. When you see him working every day and how clear he is in his vision of where he wants to go, and where he wants to be, that is the most important thing for a young player, to have this intrinsic motivation to improve every day.
“I am sure he will improve during the season by getting game time, experiences on the pitch, and growing as a personality, then he will be a great player for us.”
Minteh’s return to fitness comes at a good moment for Hurzeler, in time for the busiest month of the season with his team fourth in the table. Six matches in December, starting with Thursday’s away game at Fulham, will encourage squad rotation.
|
Team
|
Venue
|
Date
|
|---|---|---|
|
Fulham
|
(a)
|
December 5
|
|
Leicester
|
(a)
|
December 8
|
|
Crystal Palace
|
(h)
|
December 15
|
|
West Ham
|
(a)
|
December 21
|
|
Brentford
|
(h)
|
December 27
|
|
Aston Villa
|
(a)
|
December 30
|
None of those December opponents are currently in the top seven. Three of them — Leicester, Crystal Palace and West Ham — are in the bottom seven.
That is not necessarily an advantage, given that the draw against Southampton stretched Brighton’s results against sides in the relegation zone to 35 winless games out of 47 — but having Minteh in the mix again increases their chances of breaking down opponents.
(Top photo: Mike Hewitt via Getty Images)
