The Sun now make baffling claim about Yankuba Minteh and Newcastle United

Yankuba Minteh has been hailed by Newcastle United as the answer to their PSR prayers as they fight to come in under the three-year allowable loss limit before Sunday's deadline.

Newcastle, like several other clubs, are desperately scrambling to raise funds in order to bring their books in line with the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules before the new reporting year begins on Monday. Should they fail to do so, the clubs who breach the rules face points deductions like those dished out to Everton and Nottingham Forest last season.

The only way Newcastle can conceivable meet this deadline is to sell Yankuba MInteh as he's currently the only player who would bring in enough money to offset the shortfall, believed to be around £25million. He's also the only player that any other clubs are showing a firm interest in.

A move to Everton collapsed earlier this week which would have seen Minteh go to the Toffees and Dominic Calvert Lewin come the other way in two separate deals for roughly the same amount, thus bringing both clubs in line with PSR, but the Magpies pulled out of the deal over Everton's valuation of Calvert-Lewin. Then, yesterday, Yankuba Minteh refused to speak to Lyon after the two clubs agreed a fee with the Gambian stating he will not be forced out of the club he only joined last year.

Newcastle have told Minteh he will be banished if he refuses to speak to other clubs

Clearly there are pinches of salt to be taken with all of this, but save your salt for The Sun's update. I mean, that's a standard rule when reading anything in The Sun to be fair.

After running the Lyon story and saying that Minteh was refusing to speak to them, The Sun have today claimed that Newcastle have told Minteh he will be banished to the youth team if he doesn't play ball with their attempts to move him on.

That really doesn't sound like something Newcastle would do to a promising young star as it could absolutely destroy his confidence and derail his career, but the thing that really makes this story seem off is the contradiction the report makes later on.

The Sun's claims make no sense

The Sun claims that Minteh has been told he doesn't feature in Eddie Howe's plans next season - that much may well be true - but then it goes on to say that Howe 'would look at him training if he remains at the club next month.'

Which is it then? Is he going to banish him or give him a chance to impress?

As we've already said, we strongly believe that were it not for PSR, Newcastle wouldn't even be entertaining the idea of letting Minteh go after impressing on loan at Feyenoord last season, but his potential sale is simply a necessity to bring the club's finances in line.