Feyenoord manager Arne Slot has admitted that Newcastle United youngster Yankuba Minteh needs ‘different treatment’ to the other players in his squad and is ‘often taken aside’ for private chats.
The Feyenoord boss has been speaking at his pre-match press conference today, relayed by 1908.nl, when the subject of Minteh was once again up for conversation.
Minteh has been impressing on loan at Feyenoord since arriving from Newcastle in the summer after the Magpies signed him in an €8m deal from Odense.
He’s been a regular for them since, developing his game in the Netherlands under Slot and generally winning fans with some impressive displays.
The club have also had to deal with the fact he’s still only young, though, with praise for the youngster often tempered with frustrations over his lack of polish or end product.
Minteh is very much still a player who needs developing, as to be expected from someone who is still in his first season in Europe.
It is because of that Newcastle elected to bring him back from his loan in January and Slot admits he’s had to pull him to one side on more than one occasion.
“To determine whether he has really improved, I think we should take a longer period,” he said before bringing up the ‘different treatment’ he has to give the youngster.
“When it comes to Yankuba… One player is just paying attention during a match review and with the other, after a minute and a half you no longer have the feeling that he is picking up very much.
“I won’t say which group Yankuba belongs to, but it is true that after the discussion he is often taken aside to discuss exactly what he has gained from it.
“In order to get him better, we have to keep him, because I think there is still a lot of room for him, he has only been a professional for the second year.”
