Why Yankuba Minteh is missing for Brighton against Newcastle United

Add as preferred source on Google

One of the key narratives ahead of Brighton & Hove Albion’s visit to Newcastle United was the potential return of Yankuba Minteh to St James’ Park.

Newcastle reluctantly sold the 20-year-old winger to the Seagulls this summer in a £30million move that helped ease the Magpies’ PSR situation.

That meant that the Gambia international left Newcastle without making a single appearance for the club, as he was quickly loaned out to Eredivisie side Feyenoord for the 2023/24 season after he completed his move to the Magpies.

After an impressive season on the Netherlands, Minteh sealed a move to Brighton and has made a strong start to his Seagulls career, netting his first goal for the club in the 3-2 win against Tottenham before the October international break.

Yankuba Minteh missing from Brighton squad

It was something of a surprise, therefore, that Minteh was absent from the Brighton teamsheet that was confirmed at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.

The former Magpie was not even named on Fabian Hurzeler’s bench with his omission due to a ‘minor injury’ that he picked up on international duty with Gambia, as per SussexWorld.

Minteh played in both of Gambia’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Madagascar this month, netting in the first of the double header and claiming an assist in the second, when he substituted eight minutes from time.

Eddie Howe on Yankuba Minteh sale

Newcastle would no doubt have been able to utilise Minteh this season, with Eddie Howe confirming in his pre-Brighton press conference that selling the promising youngster ‘hurt’ but was necessary.

“In my opinion, it was absolutely the right thing to do,” he said. “But it still hurts to have done it. We had no other option. No matter what the narrative is in the future, regardless of how Elliot [Anderson] does or Yankuba does, it’s still the right thing to do for the benefit of Newcastle.

“We couldn’t breach PSR. We couldn’t face a points deduction. The only two deals on the table at the time were the two deals that we did.

“We didn’t want to sell Yankuba at all. We believed in his potential and everything about his profile fitted what we needed. But we had to make a decision based on finances.”