Brighton Coach Challenges Yankuba Minteh Amid Liverpool Interest

Brighton head coach Fabian Hürzeler has thrown down a challenge to Yankuba Minteh and, indirectly, to Liverpool: know your worth, but know what you already have.

With Liverpool scouring the market for fresh attacking sparkle after the departure of Mohamed Salah, Minteh has emerged as one of the names high on their list. The Anfield club, having finally thrashed out a £120m agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for Bradley Barcola, are now working on adding a second winger to Andoni Iraola’s squad. Minteh, on loan at Brighton from Newcastle last season before the Seagulls made the move permanent, is firmly in their sights.

The problem is the price.

Liverpool have already seen two offers knocked back, the second climbing beyond £60m. Brighton’s response was to plant a flag at around £80m and refuse to budge. That figure has been viewed on Merseyside as excessive, prompting suggestions Liverpool had cooled their interest.

Hürzeler doesn’t quite buy that.

“Rumours. Rumours. Let’s see what happens,” he said, batting away the noise while making his wider point. For him, the story is not just about a fee or a headline move. It is about a young winger understanding why those rumours exist in the first place.

Minteh, he stressed, is a product of a collective.

“He benefits, for example, from the hard work of Pascal [Gross], hard work from Jack Hinshelwood, hard work from all the other players. And he knows it.”

That line matters. Brighton’s model is clear: identify, develop, sell at the right time. Hürzeler accepts the reality of working at a club that has become a destination for young talent and a marketplace for the elite. Yet he is determined that players don’t mistake a stepping stone for something disposable.

“Therefore I also think it’s important to understand as a player what you have here, playing for a club like Brighton,” he said. “You have a club that gives you the chance, you team-mates who are really trying to push you, you have a club that is there for you also in tough moments.”

He name-checked Carlos Baleba, now at Manchester United, as another who rode out difficult spells with Brighton’s support. Minteh, he added, has had his own rough patches, and the club stood behind him in the same way.

That’s the leverage Brighton are using as the market circles: not just a price tag, but a platform.

Hürzeler has no intention of pretending Brighton are not sellers. He simply wants the player to weigh the environment he would be leaving.

“So I think it’s also important for the players to understand what they have here with this club, how the fans are connected, how we are working together. It’s difficult to find a similar environment, or better environment, for potential young players.

“But the same with Minteh, we were successful as a team; that brings attention to him, so let’s see what happens.

“If you ask me if I’ll try to convince him to stay, yes, I try to convince him to stay. But can I control everything? No, I can’t control everything.”

That is as close as he came to admitting the obvious: Brighton can set a price, they can make their case, but they cannot shut the door if the numbers and the player’s wishes align.

Liverpool, for their part, have already walked away from one PSG target, Ibrahim Mbaye, after balking at the French club’s demands for a second wantaway player. They have also been distanced from links to Ismaila Sarr, with suggestions of a rejected bid for the Senegal international played down.

Minteh, though, remains live.

From Hürzeler’s vantage point, the winger is not a commodity on a screen. He is a Brighton player with a responsibility to commit fully while he is still on their books.

“From my perspective, Minteh, he’s a Brighton player; he needs to commit to this club,” the German insisted. “Because he knows that these rumours only come because he benefits from everything here.

“From how he’s been worked with, how he’s been protected from everyone, how he’s been developed. So I think that’s also important for him.”

Then came the line that will intrigue Liverpool supporters most.

“Then in the end, we all know, everyone knows, how the football business works. Let’s see the ideas from Liverpool.

“We have a clear idea how we want to go forward, but we have a lot of things in our hands regarding this player.

“But in the end, there’s Tony [Bloom, owner], there’s Paul [Barber, CEO], together with them we try to make the right decision.”

That “let’s see the ideas from Liverpool” feels like a door left ajar. Brighton are not inviting a fire sale. They are, though, signalling a willingness to talk if the offer reflects both the player’s potential and the club’s value in shaping it.

If Liverpool do return to the table and finally strike a compromise for Minteh to follow Barcola through the door, the knock-on at Anfield will be brutal. Two high-profile wide forwards arriving in the same window would push Cody Gakpo’s status into uncomfortable territory and raise serious questions about his long-term role under Iraola.

For now, the standoff holds: Brighton with their £80m stance and their manager’s emotional appeal, Liverpool weighing up how far to stretch, and Minteh caught in the middle, asked to choose between the project that made him and the giants ready to test just how much that progress is really worth.