Yankuba Minteh was one of the stars of the early part of the Premier League season before injury derailed his progress. But there are signs that Brighton's summer signing from Newcastle is ready to make a difference to his 2025 squad.
A positive performance from the bench in the Seagulls' draw at Aston Villa puts him firmly in Fabian Hurzeler's mind when visiting Arsenal on Saturday. The Gunners are in form, but any opponent will struggle to deal with the flying Minteh.
The wing brings something different. With a top speed of 35.38 kilometers per hour, he is the fastest player in his team, the only Brighton player among the 50 fastest in the Premier League this season. It is such a useful weapon, the basis for his creativity.
Yankuba Minteh has been Brighton's fastest player in the Premier League this season
Johnathan McKinstry is Minteh's head coach at international level in The Gambia. This ability to run away from people is special. “Essentially, he has the most important attribute for an attacking player in football, which is speed,” McKinstry said. Sky Sports.
“If you talk to any defender, regardless of level, what they hate to play against is real pace. You don't need all the tricks in the world. If you can push the ball into space and have that acceleration to get past someone, it creates a lot of problems opponents.”
Minteh ranks fourth in dribble attempts in the Premier League this season and 11th in successful crosses. There were also a few goals, in the win over Tottenham and later at Leicester. He has that rare talent for making things happen.
Perhaps surprisingly given the quality in Hurzeler's squad, it is Minteh who has the most expected assists per 90 minutes of any Brighton player this season. The 20-year-old winger, not Kaoru Mitoma or Joao Pedro, creates the chances most often.
Yankuba Minteh's expected assist per 90 minutes is the highest of any Brighton player
There are aspects of his game that he still needs to work on, that's for sure. It can be messy at times, everything happens so quickly that the precision required, especially in the final third of the pitch where decision-making is so important, is not always evident.
It is less surprising, for example, to find that he also loses the ball more often than his teammates. While Minteh attempts a lot of dribbles, the percentage of those that are actually successful is among the lowest of the Premier League's best dribblers.
Yankuba Minteh ranks fourth in dribble attempts per 90 minutes in the Premier League
But then, isn't that to be expected? Minteh did not arrive from the Premier League academy. He only signed for Danish club OB in the summer of 2022, where he was rarely there before impressing at Feyenoord on loan from Newcastle last season.
Brighton were paying big money for a player whose potential Eddie Howe insisted he believed in but was forced to sell for financial reasons – but it was still potential they were buying. Encouragingly, the feeling is that Minteh is determined to improve.
Even before he made his debut, Hurzeler described him as a “role model” for the rest of the group because of the way he accepted demands, such as counter-pressing. Minteh are now in the top 10 for possession won in the final period per 90 minutes.
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Highlights from the Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Brighton
“Yankuba has that real determination,” says McKinstry.
“Sometimes the challenge for a coach with young players breaking into professional football is that celebrity, finances can easily get in the way. But with the young Gambian players, including Yankuba, there is a steely determination.
“We always talk about the challenges of the academy system in Europe, where players maybe get everything they're given very early, when you look at a lot of the young Gambian players, they were still in The Gambia until they were 17 or 18. year.
“These players played in the domestic league, which is basically amateur, so they had to fight with adults. They are there at the age of 17, they are kicked out, they have to learn how to survive football in that environment.
“The nice thing is that when they get to a Premier League club, a Bundesliga club, a Serie A club, they don't take it for granted. They've already experienced the hard edge of football, so in this nice, great environment, they know that for they have to work.
“Our young players, when they lose, they hate it, they absolutely hate it. There are no smiles, they don't laugh and joke if they haven't achieved the result they want, which, again, is refreshing as a coach. to have that mindset in your young players.”
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Tony Bloom explains the background to Yankuba Minteh's transfer from Newcastle
And Minteh remains a young player, only 21 until July. There are only seven players younger than him who have started as many Premier League games this season and all but two are English. The learning curve was steep. But he is learning.
“You can't swim in that ocean of sharks that is the Premier League without being very demanding of yourself,” adds McKinstry. “He's off to a good start, but the most important person who needs to know that is just the beginning. And he knows it.
“He knows he's only 20 years old and he still has a lot of work to do to continue on this path, just to be in that starting eleven. He's already an important player, but he wants to learn as much as he can from the people around him and that's so refreshing.”
Expect Minteh to take the next step in 2025.
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