Matheus Cunha: Wolves ace attracts transfer interest from Nottingham Forest and Arsenal but not for sale | Football news
Nottingham Forest and Arsenal have targeted Matheus Cunha, but is the Wolves ace for sale? Sky Sports News’ Danyal Khan explains the situation…
Could Matheus Cunha leave Wolves in this window?
Two things can be true at once.
Matheus Cunha is attracting interest from Nottingham Forest and Arsenal – but why wouldn’t he? He has consistently shown great improvement in his performances over the last 18 months or so at Wolves.
A versatile forward who is incredibly good on the ball, he is a player who has the potential to consistently hit double figures in goals and assists every season – but as the wins at Southampton and Fulham showed – he can make magic out of nothing. Almost priceless.
But as I understand it, the Brazilian is not for sale in this window.
Despite their interest in him, Wolves have not had any offers for him or contacted other clubs about Cunha and are not interested in selling such a key player at this stage of the season – especially with so little time left.
Their business model is likely to see a big sale in the summer window with the hope of funding more inflows so there is every chance Cunha’s future will resurface in the summer, but for January, Wolves’ stance is clear, he is not for sale.
What about his contract situation?
This is a bit more nuanced and complicated. Cunha has two and a half years left on his contract with a new contract to be signed.
However, it is unlikely that they will sign him at this time.
Whether it’s because of the hype surrounding him or his personal ambition, we’ll have to wait and see, but Wolves are relaxed about the situation.
The desire to hand him a new contract was more to do with rewarding his recent performances, which saw Cunha captain the team for the first time on several occasions.
It’s also worth noting that Wolves are under no financial pressure to sell him in January – they made over £90m from the sales of Max Kilman and Pedro Neto last summer.
Cunha still signing on the dotted line is not expected to have any impact on his immediate future and I think from Wolves’ point of view they will be hoping that the buzz surrounding the Brazilian dies down after Deadline Day passes.
How do Wolves fans feel?
It’s never ideal to read or hear about one of your stars being linked with a move away – especially with a team struggling to get results on the pitch and in the relegation battle.
There is a sense of déjà vu among Wolves fans as some fans may draw comparisons between Cunha and when Wolves sold Morgan Gibbs-White to Nottingham Forest a few seasons ago.
My own opinion is that this is quite different. With Gibbs-White, yes, Wolves were reluctant sellers at the time, but after sitting in press conferences with Bruno Lage, the Wolves manager at the time, it was clear from what he kept saying that there was a price at which Wolves were ready to sell.
The timing and circumstances are also different – it was in the summer of 2022, right at the start of the season, and I think at the time it seemed like a pretty good deal of over £40m for a young midfielder.
However, as mentioned earlier, Wolves’ Premier League security is in serious jeopardy and if you lose your star striker with limited time to replace him, you can imagine the detrimental effect it would have on the team, Vitor Pereira as well as the fans.
There is also fan frustration with people like Wolves chairman Jeff Shi – which could be heard at recent Wolves games. A perceived lack of investment, as well as rising ticket prices, has led many to question the club’s management by Chinese company Fosun International.
However, with the club’s Premier League safety in serious doubt this season, if Wolves do stay up, it may shock the board into adjusting their recruitment model in future windows.
That’s for the future though. Ultimately, the Cunha situation is an unnecessary distraction that everyone associated with Wolves could do without thinking about their fight to stay in the Premier League.
