Leading football analyst makes Newcastle United ‘biggest fumble’ claim after hugely frustrating window
A former Newcastle star will return with a point to prove in this weekend’s Premier League encounter
Former Statsbomb owner Ted Knutson has been hugely critical of Newcastle United’s decision to sell youngster Yankuba Minteh to Premier League rivalsBrighton and Hove Albion in the summer and has even gone as far to say that it would have been better for the club to take a points deduction if it meant keeping the Gambian international at St James’ Park.
Statsbomb is a leading football data analytics company which helps teams make informed decisions across player recruitment and match analysis. According to Nufc Blog they were involved in helping former Newcastle super scout Graham Carr in the early stages of the club’s data revolution more than a decade ago.
Minteh joined Newcastle for around £6m last summer, but left just 12 months later for a reported figure of around £30m, without ever playing a game for the North East club. He spent the entirety of last season with Dutch side Feyenoord last term and registered 11 goals and five assists across all competitions - including one against Celtic in the Champions League group stage.
Knutson told I Paper Sport that the 20-year-old has the qualities that Newcastle are currently missing on the right hand side of attack and claims the team’s decision to sell Minteh ‘left him in disbelief.’
He explained: “I’m in disbelief that they let him go. If they’re looking for a right winger, they had the right person! They literally had him. It’s the biggest fumble they could make. It literally might’ve been better to be docked points than lose him.
“They flipped their money and got a 4x profit on it, which is really good in most circumstances - but Minteh’s profile is one that could put him amongst the top 10 right wingers in the world within the next three years. Brighton clearly think that because they have him in the first XI already.
“I was shocked by how much I love this kid because of his control inside of the box. You were watching Musiala at the Euros at the time who had that element of being impossible to touch in the box because you don’t know which way he will go, he can finish quite well and the fact he is left footed makes him super valuable by himself. I fully expected them to keep him and use him in the last 25 minutes of games to really stretch and change the game, especially against the tougher teams.”
Minteh has a record of one goal and one assist in seven Premier League starts since joining Brighton this season. He claimed his first goal for the Seagulls last time out in a 3-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur and will undoubtedly have a point to prove when his side travel to St James’ Park this weekend in what promises to be an intriguing encounter.