Matheus Cunha

[sc91]

how predictable.....the Shi apologists brand the naysayers 'happy to have been proven right'

Nobody is happy to have been proven right FFS.

Stop whining - because this is the longest we've been in the top flight for 40 years, nobody is allowed to air misgivings and highlight mistakes.

Modern football, you're all clowns, innit.

I'll get the butter knife.

 

[Contrarian]

The worst thing about this is that we may not see the Neto-Cunha partnership again. Those two were combining like a knife and butter against Chelsea!

That's assuming Neto can make it till the end of the season without also getting crocked.

 

[Contrarian]

Well we'll see won't we.

My prediction is that as soon as our season is over for either of those aims, you will be on here saying survival was the aim anyway. Therefore, we can't really get anywhere from this discussion. But, you don't like Fosun

I think it could well turn out like that. I would assume that our football is going turn more cautious and less exciting, at the very least, as we try and grind out results. That's not a criticism - I'd rather we do that and grind out results, than carry on playing more open football while our main threats are missing or not fully fit.

 

[loppers86]

I was really excited about watching us play for the rest of the season. Probably more excited than at any time since the first PL season under Nuno.

I'm no longer excited.
I expect to be rather bored actually.

GON has done amazing, but the whole ethos of that has revolved around Cunha, now GON has to come up with a Plan B and he doesn't have much in the way of options to work with. I'll bet he's not too happy either.

 

[Skrilla]

I'd say that's less the point than the manager being deprived of the option. Yes, an outright centre forward won't seamlessly replace the work Cunha does in deep lying areas, this goes without saying, but it would have given Gary something different in any and all games that, for whatever reason he didn't get from Fabio or Sasa. It's less likely to me he was targeting a goal-hanger like Ings or Adams, than a more mobile team player who was not publicly identified.

Now we've lost Cunha, it brings the lack of options into clearer focus. Right now, we have available Neto (awesome), Sarabia (quality if not a little inconsistent), Bellegarde (meh), Nathan Fraser (youth kid who wouldn't be in the first team squad in normal circumstances) and Hwang (very good, but is carrying an injury too). Lose him and you can forget about it. I won't go so far as to say our season is over quite yet, as this group has shown character to overcome adversity before, but it's not a great situation. A striker in there would be really helpful right now.

I agree. Certainly not saying another forward wouldn’t have helped, especially to offer something different, but I don’t believe if our form goes down the pan it will be solely because of that, as some want to portray it as.

Losing a player as important as Cunha is to us would derail any club. Everything ran through him in an attacking sense, and he seemed to get better week-on-week. Just gutting.

Fingers crossed we can get him back in April and somehow find a way to get to Wembley without him…

 

[Scallywolf]

If I remember it seemed like the sky had fallen in when Neto did his hamstring against Newcastle. He was unable to start in the following 10 league games but we still managed to accumulate 16 points. While not underestimating Cunha's value to the team, we're still capable of picking up a decent number of points without one of best players.

Look at the difference when he went off against Brentford!

Cunha is our main man imo and is more important to us than Neto. Always on the front foot, picking up the ball from all over the pitch and driving us forward. Neto plays wide left or wide right and doesn't get around the pitch anything like Cunha.

We are going to miss our Brazilian a lot more than our Portuguese I can tell you!

 

[WolvesAndCows]

That yuri alberto agent fiasco is looking really painful right now

Yuri should have told his agent to **** off, I've got this under control!

 

[SuperGran]

Yuri should have told his agent to **** off, I've got this under control!

He should have in the summer when West Ham wanted him

 

[WW1963]

if we seriously couldn’t afford a striker then that worries me more as i’ve said before.

we were perhaps closer than we ever knew to breaching. until we know the accounts is hard to conclude either way i guess.

Nobody could afford a striker in January. At least not one remotely good that a primary, shoe-in striker could be replaced without weakening a team.

 

[stever]

Hopefully we’ll see him in 2 months. That’s it for any FA cup dream and if Pedro goes down then so may we but yeah, hopefully we’ll see him in two months.

We ain't going down mate

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

No striker in Jan looks terrible now

When do we find out if Jeff has been lying about FFP?

 

[DanishWolf]

No striker in Jan looks terrible now

When do we find out if Jeff has been lying about FFP?

Don't think he's been lying. FFP is an issue But what is not completely transparent about FFP is how much of our challenge to keep within it is down to Fosun witholding further investment as that significantly lowers the amount of allowed losses.

 

[Starsky]

No striker in Jan looks terrible now

When do we find out if Jeff has been lying about FFP?

When the accounts come out and we find out we've been using pay day loans for cashflow.

 

[Krispy Kreme]

Well the January gamble lasted two whole weeks. Bravo Wolves.

Gutted for Matheus after showing such great form for the past couple of months. Hopefully we see him again in a month or so.

It wasn't a gamble.

We didn't feel the need to gamble.

The gamble was last January risking a point deduction.

We coped without Neto.

Coped without Hwang.

We will survive without Matheus.

Not ideal, but will see us through without FFP worries.

 

[Wonder Boyo]

That's it then we'll next see him in August, entirely predictable and entirely avoidable to be left with very little up front, thanks Fosun you never fail to disappoint.

Yeah, they never fail to disappoint, it's been a disaster since they bought the club. All they've done is given us promotion to the Premier League as champions, five consecutive seasons in the Premier League (6 if you count next season), two seventh place finishes, a European quarter final, an FA Cup semi final, and the best ever period of time I've had as a fan. I mean what have they ever done for us?

The overreacting drama queens on here are truly a prime example of the social media 'I want it all and I want it now' age. All this outrage because a player pulled his hamstring, like players do every week. We sold two strikers that we never were going to use and don't suit our style of play (and they still wouldn't be used in these circumstances and if they were we'd see again how awful they look). We've also just pulled off a FFP masterstroke but how quickly the moaners forget that at the very next window, despite hardly any teams bringing in a striker due to financial constraints. I'm still glad we didn't over pay for anyone who wouldn't have got ahead of Hwang, Neto and Sarabia. Safe and out performing this season, never likely to reach Europe anyway, but, on no, the sky is falling in.

Just like we had a host of dire predictions for the six games after the West Ham defeat with many posters predicting 0 or 1 points, before going on our best run of the season, the serial disasterists (my made up word) are out in force again.

Teams lose key players to injury all the time with no like for like replacement. They do have other players that can come in and do a job though in difficult circumstances. These players are never as good as the key players the lose, that's why they are key players. Bad luck occurs, **** happens, and you just have to get on with it. We have a number of players who can fill in and GON has to work out a way to play with those replacements. This is what football is like for every team outside the big six. Small squads and big injuries hurt and have an impact.

 

[Axle]

On the bright side l’m guessing the next time we’ll see Cuhna playing will be at Wembley?












For Brazil when they play England.

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

No striker in Jan looks terrible now

When do we find out if Jeff has been lying about FFP?

When he appears on the TV programme ' Would I lie to you'

 

[North West Wanderer]

Don't think he's been lying. FFP is an issue But what is not completely transparent about FFP is how much of our challenge to keep within it is down to Fosun witholding further investment as that significantly lowers the amount of allowed losses.

and this is the issue.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

Remind me again, what have we now ****ed up?

Out - 2 strikers / In - no strikers

Injured - Cunha for season

Hwang - who knows

Neto - any minute now

We’ve ****ed up any chance of continuing our cup run or scraping a euro place

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

It wasn't a gamble.

We didn't feel the need to gamble.

The gamble was last January risking a point deduction.

We coped without Neto.

Coped without Hwang.

We will survive without Matheus.

Not ideal, but will see us through without FFP worries.

Excuse me this is not the place for optimism. I think you might just have got aeay with it this time.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

Why do you keep saying disastrous? What has it cost us?

As was said, things didn't work out, that's football at a club run on a shoestring.

You’re right, everything is fine.

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

Don't think he's been lying. FFP is an issue But what is not completely transparent about FFP is how much of our challenge to keep within it is down to Fosun witholding further investment as that significantly lowers the amount of allowed losses.

He might not be lying but he is the man who has put us in this position that has caused us to have to take these measures.

 

[Glow69]

Out - 2 strikers / In - no strikers

Injured - Cunha for season

Hwang - who knows

Neto - any minute now

We’ve ****ed up any chance of continuing our cup run or scraping a euro place

You can put that phrasing next to any player in the squad or a shiny new striker.

 

[tamwolf]

How is everyone else planning on seeing out the end of the world?

 

[Matt]

It wasn't a gamble.

We didn't feel the need to gamble.

The gamble was last January risking a point deduction.

We coped without Neto.

Coped without Hwang.

We will survive without Matheus.

Not ideal, but will see us through without FFP worries.

Letting Fabio and Sasa go before getting a replacement in (that we obviously wanted) was a gamble. I’m not saying we won’t cope, I’m not saying we won’t survive. I agree - it’s not ideal. But they definitely took a gamble and it’s bit us. Hopefully he’s not out for as long as reported.

 

[WolvesAndCows]

How is everyone else planning on seeing out the end of the world?

Going to McDonald's every night.

 

[SuperGran]

Going to McDonald's every night.

With your username I’m not surprised

 

[DJLWolf]

You still haven’t answered my post there have you? Was anyone we signed in January going to replace Cunha?

I don't understand this point.If that's your take let's just not bother naming any substitutes from now on because presumably they aren't as good as the 11 on the pitch.

He's a 44 million pound player so any additions wouldn't have been as good as him, but there aren't many in the league that are.It doesn't mean you can't have alternatives.

The premier League in 2024 is very physically demanding and injuries occur frequently.Clubs require squad depth and multiple players providing different options with multiple skill sets.

We've clearly left ourselves short but the one positive out of this is we get to see what Fraser is made of.

Let's just hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as Silva as a result of getting thrown in too early due to a lack of a sensible recruitment strategy.

 

[SquaddieWolf]

How is everyone else planning on seeing out the end of the world?

Gonna have to drink as much as possible

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Player Fraser time to trust the kids

 

[CelebrityWolf]

This place is brilliant.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1757801841302098282

Everything points to a grade 2 sprain no surgery

 

[Dingle Chris]

At the end of the day we can see they are serious about FFP. Would you rather be Forest or Everton worrying about a points deduction? We’ve played a blinder really from where we were. No risk of going down. We spunked our money last year to stay up and we did. Can’t see what all the fuss is about?

 

[Ercall Wolves]

We are stuffed.

Hwang back will help but doubling Neto and stifling us, as Brentford demonstrated, will become a lot easier.

We’re stuffed LOL, massive miss yes of coursebut stuffed….behave

 

[sc91]

This place is brilliant.

Least seperates who'd be the best to go down with the Titanic with!

 

[Skrilla]

I don't understand this point.If that's your take let's just not bother naming any substitutes from now on because presumably they aren't as good as the 11 on the pitch.

He's a 44 million pound player so any additions wouldn't have been as good as him, but there aren't many in the league that are.It doesn't mean you can't have alternatives.

The premier League in 2024 is very physically demanding and injuries occur frequently.Clubs require squad depth and multiple players providing different options with multiple skill sets.

We've clearly left ourselves short but the one positive out of this is we get to see what Fraser is made of.

Let's just hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as Silva as a result of getting thrown in too early due to a lack of a sensible recruitment strategy.

The point is that the OP was insinuating that not signing a backup striker in January is the reason why we aren't going to continue our cup run and fail to make Europe, I think losing Cunha, our best player, has significantly worsened us regardless of if we'd signed a backup striker in January.

Palace are missing Eze and Olise right now, and that's a big reason why they're continuing to slide down the table, having backups like Ayew and Schlupp isn't the reason they're struggling, or rather not struggling, they've just been unfortunate with injuries to their best players. You can say the same about Newcastle and Brighton who've struggled with injuries to key players this season.

 

[Ercall Wolves]

Huge blow. But but but but we didn't need a striker apparently

Who said we didn’t need a striker?
GON said we did need a striker but we couldn’t get the right person in with the budget/restrictions we had due to FFP

 

[Ercall Wolves]

I think that criticism of Fraser for the showing against Brentford is unfair.

The entire team were off it. No one had a great game.

Fraser had a decent second half against Brentford
I would like to see him get more game time between now and the end of the season to see what he can do

 

[SquaddieWolf]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1757801841302098282

Everything points to a grade 2 sprain no surgery

If its hamstring it be strain not sprain

 

[Ercall Wolves]

For every place we now finish down the table, it will cost us £2m

Assume then for every position we finish above now we receive an additional £2m