Clubs don’t bid twice in a week for a Championship winger they plan to use as fourth choice.
As per The Athletic, Brighton have now gone to a package worth a little over £10million for a talented winger Femi Azeez, and they’re still going with the deadline at 11pm on Tuesday.
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The interesting part of that isn’t happening at The Den.
It’s what it says about the player Liverpool have been chasing all month.
Liverpool have had bids of £50m and £60m rejected for Yankuba Minteh, with The Athletic reporting that around £70m gets a deal done.
Brighton’s public line is that he isn’t going anywhere.
Their behaviour in the market says something different.
You don’t spend deadline week chasing a right-sided attacker if your right-sided attacker is staying.
The maths explains why Brighton might be willing.
They paid Newcastle £30m for Minteh in July 2024 on a five-year contract, so his book value now sits somewhere near £18m.
A £70m sale would register as roughly £50m of accounting profit in one afternoon, for a player who is currently injured and not expected back until October.
Selling a winger who won’t kick a ball for six weeks, at a price that funds most of a squad rebuild, is the entire Tony Bloom operating model in one transaction.
Azeez is the reinvestment half.
Eleven goals and seven assists in 35 Championship games, a place in the PFA Championship Team of the Season, and a fee around a tenth of what Minteh would generate.
Brighton have already made eight signings and moved ten players out this window.
One more in, one very large one out, and the summer balances.
The chain runs further down.
BBC Sport linked Brighton to Azeez as cover in case Amario Cozier-Duberry left, and Rangers have already had a £7.5m bid for him rejected.
Millwall, meanwhile, would need to replace Azeez with less than 48 hours of window remaining, which is precisely why they’re refusing to blink at £10m.
Every club in the sequence is waiting on the one above it.
That’s Brighton’s problem as much as anyone’s.
Brighton can’t afford to be caught accepting it with no right winger under contract.
The order of operations matters: Azeez signed first, Minteh sold second.
Millwall know all of this, which is the whole reason the number keeps moving.
Their leverage isn’t Azeez’s contract, which still has two years to run.
It’s the clock, and it’s ticking against everyone except them.
Read more: Liverpool reach full agreement to sign Bradley Barcola
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