Wolves secured a new contract for Matheus Cunha in the January transfer window but, just how good was the deal for the Old Gold?
There’s no debate regarding who Wolves’ best player is right now, as Cunha continues to impress beyond expectation at Molineux.
Tying Cunha down to a new contract was one of Wolves’ best business moves in the winter market, with the Brazilian attracting significant interest from elsewhere.
At times, it was unclear whether the deal would be struck as contract talks with Cunha stalled before a deal was fortunately pushed over the line, but at what cost?
Concern over Matheus Cunha’s contract after Wolves extension
While the Brazilian will be a Wolves player until the end of the season, it feels almost inevitable that the end of the forward’s stay at Molineux will come in the summer.
Cunha has a release clause included in his new contract, valued in the region of £62.5m, which journalist Liam Keen dissected on the latest episode of the E&S Wolves Podcast.
“At this stage, we don’t believe there are any add-ons, anything extra to that deal. It’s going to be a pretty straightforward £62.5m release clause which as we said previously is not a relegation release clause, it’s just a standard release clause which we expect will be taken up and he will move on in the summer.”
What the Wolves expert revealed next could come as quite a concern for the Old Gold, as one condition to the 25-year-old’s release clause is quite remarkable.
“An add-on to this which I thought was really interesting. I did get a DM from someone to suggest that they understood that release clauses such as this, when they are paid out, will be paid out in full. Which means that it would be an incentive to some clubs to offer more than the release clause so that they could pay in instalments to have a payment term that’s more suitable with PSR.
“I have checked that out, that isn’t the case with this deal, so that £62.5m, it won’t be upfront, there will be a portion of it that will be, but there will be portions of it that are on payment terms.”
This means that clubs are less likely to offer more than the release clause fee in a bid to split payments as it’s already an option with the fixed £62.5m price tag.
“It’s already written into the contract so a club could come to Wolves and say, ‘We’ll pay the £62.5m but we want to negotiate the payment terms’ but Wolves would be in their rights to say no if they wanted to as well.
“So it won’t be all upfront, but it will be that there will be a portion of it and there would be spread out across however many years with the rest of the money as well. So it seems like a relatively straightforward deal and he will be leaving the club as we expect in the summer.”
Not only are Wolves set to lose their best player for £62.5m, a price arguably considerably under his true value, but are not set to land an immediate cash injection from such sale.
Cunha contract terms were rushed and could hurt Wolves
While the Old Gold will receive a record transfer fee when Cunha eventually moves on, the deal is far from adequate when it comes to the balance of the transaction.
In the podcast, Keen admitted that he considers the Brazilian to be a player valued around the ‘early £70m mark’, sharing that the release clause price is ‘lower than everyone would’ve wanted’.
| # | Player | Club | Fee |
| 5 | Max Kilman | West Ham | £40m |
| 4 | Diogo Jota | Liverpool | £41m |
| 3 | Ruben Neves | Al-Hilal | £47m |
| 2 | Matheus Nunes | Man City | £53m |
| 1 | Pedro Neto | Chelsea | £54m |
Considering that Cunha has directly contributed to an eye-watering 45.7% of Wolves’ Premier League goals this season, parting ways with the attacker, who is nearing his prime years, for a deal that doesn’t wholly suit the club is quite staggering.
It must be said that the deal was perhaps rushed, given the significant interest in Cunha in the January window and the player’s agent’s desire to exploit the market at the time.
What the future holds for Cunha at Wolves is near-certain with regard to his transfer status in the summer but, what comes next for the Old Gold in terms of a replacement is a grave concern – particularly without receiving an upfront payment.