Brighton Reject £50m Liverpool Bid For Injured Minteh
Brighton and Hove Albion have turned down an opening bid of £50 million from Liverpool for Gambia winger Yankuba Minteh, a rejection reported as one of the more surprising twists of the transfer window given that the player is currently injured. The decision leaves Liverpool still searching for a convincing answer to the defining question of their summer, how to replace Mohamed Salah.
The move was disclosed by transfer specialist David Ornstein and The Athletic. What makes it notable is the timing. Minteh is not available for selection, having undergone surgery on his right leg after an injury sustained in Brighton’s 3-0 pre-season win over Roma on 8 August, an issue expected to keep him out for around eight weeks. That Liverpool were prepared to commit that kind of money to a player who will not feature until well into the new campaign points to the urgency at Anfield.
The urgency traces back to one exit. Salah left this summer for Turkish club Trabzonspor after nine years, ending a spell in which he was Liverpool’s most prolific attacker. His departure stripped the squad of a right-sided forward whose goal output had underpinned the team for the better part of a decade, and the club has spent the window trying to reassemble that threat.
Minteh fits the profile more closely than most of the alternatives. A left-footed winger who operates mainly on the right, he is regarded as closer to a like-for-like Salah replacement than the right-footed wide men Liverpool have been linked with. Since his £30 million move from Newcastle in 2024, he has scored 10 goals and provided nine assists in 73 appearances for Brighton, and remains under contract until 2029. The underlying numbers support the interest. Among top-flight wingers last season, he ranked in the top 10 per cent for successful dribbles per 90 minutes at 2.44, and recorded 6.94 touches per 90 inside the opposition box, more than 88 per cent of his positional peers.
His route to this point was rapid. He joined Brighton at 19 in 2024 on a five-year deal after a productive loan at Feyenoord, where he scored 10 league goals, having earlier passed through Danish side Odense and Newcastle.
The Minteh bid sits within a wider rebuild rather than in isolation. Liverpool completed an early deal for Osasuna winger Victor Munoz, who officially became a Liverpool player on 1 July but only linked up with the squad later after featuring in Spain’s World Cup plans. The bigger target has been Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola. The France international is understood to have agreed personal terms, but Liverpool have not met PSG’s reported asking price of about €145 million, roughly £124 million. The reluctance is telling, given Liverpool paid a club-record £125 million for Alexander Isak last summer and appear unwilling to match that outlay again. French reports have also linked the club with PSG teenager Ibrahim Mbaye, with a bid of around £42 million mentioned.
For Nigerian followers of the Premier League, one of the most watched leagues in the country, the episode is a reminder of how a single high-profile departure reshapes an entire recruitment plan and how selling clubs such as Brighton now hold firm rather than cash in at the first offer.
Brighton’s position is straightforward. Minteh is said to be open to the move if the clubs can agree a fee, but the Seagulls are under no pressure to sell a contracted player, and his 2029 deal hands them the leverage. Their record of extracting strong fees, having bought Minteh for £30 million two years ago, suggests any eventual agreement would sit well above Liverpool’s opening figure.
What is confirmed is limited but firm. Liverpool made a £50 million offer, Brighton rejected it, Minteh is recovering from surgery and expected back in around two months, and he is receptive to a switch. What remains open is whether Liverpool return with an improved bid, whether they prioritise Barcola, Minteh or both, and whether any of these deals close before the window shuts. Nothing beyond that can be stated with certainty until a fresh offer is either lodged or confirmed.