The 2025 summer Premier League transfer window has closed with one of its most high-profile sagas ending in a standstill, as Brighton & Hove Albion held firm on their valuation of young Gambian winger Yankuba Minteh, turning down two successive bids from Liverpool totalling up to £60 million. The outcome has left the future of the 22-year-old wide player unresolved, but Brighton’s young head coach Fabian Hurzeler has left the door open for a potential future move if Minteh continues his upward trajectory at the AMEX Stadium.
Liverpool, under manager Andoni Iraola, had identified Minteh as a key target to strengthen their attacking options ahead of the new season, tabled an initial £50 million offer before upping their proposal to £60 million. Both bids were firmly rejected by Brighton, who are understood to value the pacey right winger at a figure closer to £70 million. Minteh only joined the Seagulls 12 months prior to this transfer window, arriving from Newcastle United in 2024 for a £30 million fee. Since his move to the south coast, he has established himself as a fan favorite and key first-team contributor, notching 10 goals and nine assists across 73 appearances for the club.
Speaking ahead of Brighton’s opening Premier League fixture of the new season against Leeds United, Hurzeler made clear that while Minteh had been the subject of major transfer interest, the winger remains fully committed to the club’s project for the coming campaign. “He wears the Brighton colours, he wears the Brighton badge. He has been with us for two years now as part of the squad, he has achieved great things together with the boys,” the German head coach told reporters. “It’s also about him now to commit. In the end, we always say we want to be successful as a club, and then you can shine as individuals. That is what we have proved in the past. If we achieve things together, the attention will come to the individual players, and that will be the case also this season.”
Hurzeler added that Minteh’s dream of a big-money move to a top club could still come to fruition down the line if both he and the club continue to deliver results. “If the whole team is successful and the individual shines then Yankuba will get a lot of attention again and he can then maybe fulfil his dream in the next transfer window,” Hurzeler said.
While Minteh’s departure fell through, Brighton still pulled off a successful summer window in terms of transfer balancing, generating significant revenue from other player sales to reinvest in new talent. Their biggest outgoing saw highly rated central midfielder Carlos Baleba complete a £70 million move to Manchester United, opening up a spot in Brighton’s midfield that the club moved to fill on deadline day with the signing of 21-year-old Spanish defensive midfielder Chema Andres from Bundesliga side Stuttgart for a fee of £15.5 million.
Andres’ career path has been rapid: a product of Real Madrid’s famed youth academy, he made his La Liga debut for the Spanish giants in January 2025 before moving to Stuttgart that same summer. In his single season in the German top flight, he made 41 first-team appearances and helped Stuttgart secure a top-four finish and qualification for the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League. His dominant performances in front of the defence earned him comparisons to Manchester City and Spain superstar Rodri, with fans and pundits dubbing the young Spaniard “baby Rodri”.
Hurzeler says he understands the comparison, but stressed that Andres still has room to develop into the elite level midfielder many expect him to become. “He has this motivation of wanting to improve every day,” Hurzeler said of his new signing. “He comes on the first day and wants to go outside on the pitch, he wants to have ball touches and you can really feel that he is very ambitious. Therefore, I can understand this comparison [with Rodri] but he has a long way to go and hopefully he can get there one day. It would be a big one for us but also for the whole football world.”
The summer 2005 transfer window marked the second consecutive season that the Premier League broke its all-time total spending record, capping a busy period of movement across the top flight that saw Brighton reinforce their reputation as one of the league’s shrewdest operators in the transfer market.