Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Interested in Newcastle’s £40M-Rated Minteh

Following Newcastle United’s failure to qualify for Europe ahead of the 2024-25 season, there have been numerous reports that as a result the Tyneside club will have to sell players in order to balance the books this summer.

With that as the background, there have already been rumours linking Liverpool with defensive-minded Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimarães—a quality player at a perceived position of need. Now, there’s an equally intriguing second.

According to The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards, a reliable journalist with ties to Newcastle, £40M-rated Yankuba Minteh could be on the block if a club meets the Magpies’ asking price. And lo and behold, Liverpool are interested.

Minteh is an exceptionally exciting young talent, the 19-year-old Gambian winger spending last season on loan with new Liverpool manager Arne Slot at Feyenoord where he played 33 games and had a goal involvement every 110 minutes.

The player is further intriguing as he only moved to Europe from Gambia in 2022 as a 17-year-old when he joined Danish side Odense Boldklub. The next summer he was snapped up by Newcastle for around £6M and sent to Feyenoord.

Perhaps as a result of that, there can at times still be a rawness to his game—but viewed within the context of it only being the player’s second season in Europe, his contributions last year at Feyenoord seem all the more impressive.

Whether this story progresses meaningfully in the coming days and weeks, it’s probably fair to say that of all the players Slot coached at Feyenoord last season, Minteh is the one that on paper it makes most sense for Liverpool to target.