The Salah Succession: Why Liverpool Keep Chasing Yankuba Minteh

Mohamed Salah’s contract is entering its final phase, and Liverpool’s succession planning is already shaping their pursuit of Yankuba Minteh. The club signed Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain in a major summer deal, yet the 22-year-old Brighton winger remains part of the picture as Liverpool assess the next version of their attack.

The attraction is specific. Minteh is a natural left-footed right winger who can cut inside, attack space and provide a different profile from the players currently competing for the position. Liverpool’s tracking of him has never truly ceased, with reports indicating that the club could return in January after making two unsuccessful bids during the summer.

Since moving to Brighton from Newcastle United in 2024, Minteh has become one of the Premier League’s most prominent young wingers. Newcastle sold him to Brighton for between £30m and £33m under pressure from the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, despite the player not making a single appearance for the club.

His first season at Brighton brought 12 goals and assists. That figure fell to seven goal contributions across all competitions last season, while his role under Fabian Hurzeler included more high-pressing and space-creating work. The change has not removed him from Liverpool’s calculations. It has given their analytical department another part of his game to assess alongside the direct attacking output.

For Fabian Hurzeler, the reality of managing Brighton rarely includes public encouragement for a rival’s recruitment team. Yet the Brighton manager has suggested that Minteh could still end up at Anfield, after Liverpool had two bids rejected and continued to examine a possible January move. The comments leave the player’s future exposed to a familiar tension inside Brighton’s front office: keeping a key asset while knowing that the biggest clubs are prepared to test the asking price.

Brighton have demanded substantial premiums for star assets such as Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella and Alexis Mac Allister. Minteh’s valuation has now moved well beyond his £38m Transfermarkt figure, creating a difficult starting point for any winter negotiation and helping explain why the summer bids did not produce an agreement.

A late disruption came from AFC Bournemouth. Andoni Iraola’s side pursued the right winger until the final days of the summer window, but Brighton held firm and the attempted hijack failed.

The tactical comparison with Barcola is central to Liverpool’s patience. Barcola was the summer compromise, but his arrival did not settle the question of who can eventually occupy Salah’s right-sided role. A left-footed winger who begins wide, cuts inside and still threatens the space behind a defensive line is not easily replaced by a player who merely adds another attacking option. Minteh’s seven goal contributions therefore sit beside, rather than erase, the evidence of his 12 in his first Brighton campaign. His pressing, running and ability to create room for others form part of the profile Liverpool are studying as they consider a long-term Mohamed Salah successor at Anfield.

The logic behind Liverpool’s patience lies in the number of variables still moving around that position. Cody Gakpo can be used from the left or through the middle, Victor Munoz is still adapting, and Barcola’s place in the attacking structure has yet to settle. Their performances will not simply decide whether one player has succeeded or failed; they will shape whether Liverpool believe a specialist right-sided attacker is still required in January.

That assessment begins under immediate pressure when Liverpool host Atletico Madrid in the opening week of their UEFA Champions League campaign on Wednesday, September 9. The club are hoping to record consecutive victories for the first time this season, while the match places the current attacking options inside the evaluation period that will guide the next stage of the Minteh pursuit.

On the Transfer Insider podcast, Pete O’Rourke said: “Liverpool will be looking at a number of targets in January if they are planning to bring in a new right-sided attacker, somebody to fill the void of Mohamed Salah. I’m sure they’ll be keeping tabs on Yankuba Minteh’s situation at Brighton; they made a couple of bids for him that were rejected.”

“A lot will depend on what Liverpool do between now and January; if Barcola comes in and hits the ground running, and maybe they find a solution to that right-wing position, whether that’s Cody Gakpo or Victor Munoz, then they might not need to bring in that right-sided attacker,” O’Rourke added.