What ‘senior’ sources in Matheus Cunha deal are saying about...

The most recent information regarding Matheus Cunha’s likelihood of leaving Wolves in January has further

complicated Nottingham Forest’s pursuit of the Wolves player.

Only a few days have passed since the initial reports of Forest’s interest in Cunha, but the plot has already taken

many unexpected turns.

Despite Wolves’ declaration that Cunha is not for sale during the January window, Forest is still preparing a club-

record bid for the player.

Cunha would like to join Arsenal over Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad, which further complicated the race for the

Brazilian’s signature. Given that Mikel Arteta hinted that Arsenal would attempt to sign Cunha, the deal seemed

unachievable for Forest.

Wolves’ offer of £60 million for Cunha, which was far less than the widely rumoured £80 million and kept Forest

and Evangelos Marinakis in the running, brought up yet another surprise.

The narrative has, however, taken still another turn, as anticipated, with Wolves’ top sources now offering their

opinions on retaining their star player.

Relayed through journalist Alex Crook on talkSPORT’s Transfer Notebook show, sources within Wolves seem

reasonably confident that they’ll retain the services of Cunha in January.

At Wolves, they [Forest] have reportedly shown interest in Matheus Cunha, according to Crook. Despite their lack of

confidence in their ability to close a deal for Cunha this month, I believe that interest is sincere.

He has two and a half years left on his contract, so we’re at ease about this, according to a senior Wolves employee I

spoke with a few days ago. We put a new contract on the table to reward him for his performance this season […], but

we won’t sell him during this window if he doesn’t sign it.

In his pregame press conference on Friday, Vitor Pereira asserted that Cunha was committed to Wolves. Whether

this is accurate or not isn’t very important as long as Wolves aren’t under any pressure to sell the striker.

Analysing Cunha’s remarks at the beginning of the window, it appears that it would require a tremendous push from

Cunha himself to disturb the mood at Wolves in order to see him at the City Ground in January. This might perhaps

turn off the Forest owner.

When Marinakis spoke at the beginning of the transfer window, he was quite explicit about his intentions for the

January period.

In January, Marinakis put the Forest team’s unity first, therefore accepting Cunha in situations where the Brazilian

declines to play for his current team would conflict with these goals.

It became clear that Marinakis wanted to bring in a striker for Forest, but Espirito Santo’s team’s outstanding play is

partially due to the harmony among the Forest players, which may be jeopardised with the incorrect addition.

Cunha’s 10 Premier League goals would provide Espirito Santo with the extra goals they need to help Chris Wood up

front, thus he would undoubtedly improve the team.

But Marinakis would have to consider carefully if he would risk retracting his remarks at the beginning of the

transfer window in order to benefit from the additional goals Cunha would bring.

What ‘senior’ sources in Matheus Cunha deal are saying about his chances of joining Nottingham Forest