Hmmmm, seems like the sort of guy who'd be useful this season then be a burden after.

For a good fee and fair wages, he might be a good replacement for Trossard as a utility player but ultimately not a ceiling raiser.

And for that reason we shouldn't be spending ceiling raiser money on him, because he'd be a blocker if we do.

    TambourineMan he's a very expensive jesus replacement. I was against this kind of signing before jesus went down, but I'm forced to change my tune now. cunha wouldn't be my first choice. he's more of what we have. it's a good thing that we can plug him into a few positions, but then we said the same about havertz.

        Gazza M starting to make sense why we didn't make a move in the summer now...đź‘€

          • Qwiss

          • Post #715

          TambourineMan For a good fee and fair wages, he might be a good replacement for Trossard as a utility player but ultimately not a ceiling raiser.

          I think he's better than that. Genuine competition for Havertz, different profile too. Would be a good signing IMO and could very well push on in a better team.

            • MistaT

            • Post #718
            • Edited

            I was all for Cunha as a Jesus replacement. But with Jesus hurt, and both to be on big wages, it seems like this signing jeopardizes our ability to upgrade our left wing.

            Trossard / Martinelli —- Havertz/Cunha —- Saka/Nwaneri

            Not a bad set of forwards, but I’m still concerned that our center forward and left wing won’t reach a trophy winning level unless Arteta noticeably adapts our structure, and sorts out our left 8 (player/role).

              MistaT forget jeopardy mate. Signing Cunha is better than no-one. Seems the most likely at this stage but not holding my breath.

                Qwiss I think that's debatable, and possibly recency bias talking tbh. and I wasn't commenting on player quality - moreso that he'll take over jesus' place in the squad. if he can replicate the all-action 22/23 version of jesus then it's a decent signing.

                  I don’t actually think Cunha and Jesus are that similar. Bit of a lazy comparison that.

                  Cunha is more like Harry Kane in style

                  I still think the logic of “player X is better than signing no one” is completely ignoring the opportunity cost down the line if we then have more limited funds this summer. This isn’t FIFA where you get a fresh allocation of funds each window. Anything we spend this window has a direct impact on what we will have available in the summer so we need to spend very wisely. I’m not opposed to Cunha’s talent but I just hope the plan to use him fits in both short and long term.

                    What’s the one thing that has united all of us in the last couple of years? We want more forwards. What’s also true of forwards? They’re rare and expensive.
                    Based on how he plays, it’d be interesting to see him and Havertz in that rotating 8/9 role together, with Rice behind. Gives us options with Partey and merino for closing out games with a bit of stength.

                      samthegooner I wholeheartedly disagree. We have more than enough room to buy in the forward line again. It's a numbers game, and 100% of the players you don't sign never come good for you.

                          Coombs we have room for sure in terms of spots and playing time, but do we have the funds? If he costs £60m then I just am dubious that we spend what we need to on an actual left wing and CF. If funds weren’t an issue and if we knew we could potentially get off Jesus’s wages this summer, I’d be much more of a proponent of this move as an upgrade on Jesus/Trossard and then have us focus on a LW and CF in the summer. But I think the funds involved will negate one of those purchases and/or make us settle for a target that isn’t our top choice and that’s what makes me nervous.

                              samthegooner I mean financial room. If the Kroenke's are arbitrarily limiting spend in a way that doesn't align with our actual finances, we're pretty screwed anyway.

                                  • Gazza M

                                  • Post #729
                                  • Edited

                                  Claudius what's probably most attractive to me is his dynamism. a re-occuring theme of the dark side of tetball is a lack of dynamism. at the very least cunha is all action, and will roam and naturally provide 3rd man linkup options via his busy-body style. if we get him he'll be a 'lift all boats' synergy boosting type geezer. and importantly he's in form and ready to go. I have niggling doubts about the longterm wisdom of this signing, for similar reasons Sam as alluded to, but I'm probably sitting at 60/40 for it at the moment.

                                    Coombs yeah I saw something recently from someone - can't remember who sorry - that seemed reputable - maybe Swiss Ramble? - that suggested we had over 150m pounds worth of room under current PSR rules.

                                      Coombs I mean in an ideal world, I’d love to have Cunha plus a starter level winger (Gittens/Semenyo/Barcola/Nico) and CF (Isak/Sesko/Gyokeres).

                                      If you told me tomorrow that we’d bring in Cunha, Semenyo, Sesko and Zubimendi by the start of next season (as a more realistic example IMO), I’d be quite pleased. So as long as signing him doesn’t jeopardize the others, I’m down.

                                        It's not perfect, but it's a consequence of not spending in the summer when it was obvious that our forward line was short.