Arne Slot admits he fears that Feyenoord could soon lose Yankuba Minteh as his form soars


 
 
 
 
 
 

Yankuba Minteh was Newcastle United’s first signing of the summer 2023 transfer window.

A reported £7m plus future add-ons, a new incoming transfer fee record banked by Danish club Odense for the then 18 year old exciting winger.

Yankuba Minteh then instantly loaned to Feyenoord for this season. To get as much first team football as possible to help the winger progress.

He doesn’t turn 20 until towards the end of July and the big question for Yankuba Minteh in the summer, will be whether Eddie Howe integrates him into the Newcastle United squad for the start of the 2024/25 season, or sends him out on another loan to ensure more first team football elsewhere.

Earlier this month, the 19 year old winger said (see below) that he was really enjoying his time at Feyenoord but that it was a case of not if, but when, he would reach his intended eventual destination, playing for Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Now his loan club manager, Arne Slot, has been speaking about the winger’s progress, worrying that that progress is now happening too quick!

The Feyenoord boss saying (see below) that Minteh’s raw talent and sheer natural pace, is now ever more rapidly getting enhanced with better decision making in the final third, when it comes to creating and scoring goals.

So much so that Arne Slot has indicated that the Dutch club’s chances of getting Yankuba Minteh back on loan are now swiftly diminishing. With the teenager ever more likely to be involved with the Newcastle United first team squad next season.

With eleven league starts as well as nine appearances off the bench, Yankuba Mineth has ten direct goal involvements for Feyenoord in the league, scoring seven and three assists.

However, the NUFC loan star now has four goals and an assist in only his last five matches, five direct goal involvements in his last 344 minutes on the pitch for Feyenoord in the league.

Minteh’s raw pace and talent increasingly leading to creating and scoring goals.

Arne Slot talking to Dutch media, Rondo, about Yankuba Minteh:

“Yankuba Minteh has mainly played a lot in his native country, where very few tactics are involved.

“If you are that fast, it is a huge weapon.

“One action and he is gone, then you will not catch up with him again.

“I think that his choices are already improving in the final phase.

“The bad thing for us is that if his choices become really good, he will probably no longer play for us.”

The winger speaking to Voetbal International in Holland, with Feyenoord and Yankuba Minteh having the cup final to look forward to next month, whilst they look pretty certain to finish second in the league (currently 10 points off top and six ahead of third), which would see them qualify for Champions League football again next season – 13 March 2024:

“I believe very much in myself, in my qualities. In addition, you just have to go for your career, stay focused.

“There is no point in thinking that it is all going so quickly. I better be happy with it.

“That two years ago I played for Steve Biko FC in Gambia and this year I made my debut in the Champions League.

“Playing at Feyenoord, I made my debut in the Champions League, but at the same time I also think that I could perhaps have shown a little more. Okay, I scored against Celtic and recently against PSV and Heracles Almelo, but also opportunities missed. I am not easily satisfied.

“I really want to win the cup. That is a tangible prize.

“A second place (in the league), I know that it will qualify us for the Champions League and in that respect it is worth as much as a trophy, but that’s not how it feels to me.

“I want to become a champion, that’s what you play for. The cup would give our season extra shine.

“My parents sit in front of the television, like everyone else in Gambia. The whole country (backs me). It can become the first real prize for me as a footballer. If it were up to me, the first of many.

“Ultimately though, the Premier League is my goal.

“Newcastle United is the club that have a lot of confidence in me.

“I have no idea what the future looks like.

“I was in Newcastle once, when they played against Borussia Dortmund.

“I will hear soon what plans the club has for me.

“I’m still young, I have time, maybe they want to loan me out again.

“I don’t know yet, I’ll hear about it.

“I’ll let everything happen to me.

“I know only that one day I will play in the Premier League (for Newcastle United).”