‘He will be leaving’ – Arsenal handed transfer boost as fresh twist emerges in deal for Premier League forward

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Arsenal are already preparing for the summer transfer window, as they look to finally secure a striker to add to Mikel Arteta’s squad.

The Gunners opted not to reinforce their attacking cohort in January, despite injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus.

Since the winter window closed, Kai Havertz has been ruled out for the season and Gabriel Martinelli has suffered a short-term hamstring injury.

This leaves Arteta incredibly short on forward options, and likely ruing the club’s inability to strengthen when they could’ve.

The North Londoners certainly had their targets in January, and they may well revisit one of them in the summer.

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Arsenal target Matheus Cunha’s release clause update

Arsenal’s interest in Matheus Cunha was well documented in January, with the Gunners reportedly attempting to initiate a deal for the Wolves star.

Cunha is enjoying a productive campaign for the Old Gold, netting 12 goals and providing four assists in 22 Premier League starts this season.

This form prompted Arsenal to pursue him, although Wolves were unwilling to sanction the departure of their talisman in the midst of a relegation battle.

Eventually putting pen to paper on a new deal at Molineux, Cunha’s fresh contract included a £62 million release clause which will be active in the summer.

Most release clauses tend to have to be paid up front in one single payment.

However, Wolves journalist Liam Keen dismissed this in Cunha’s case, while claiming that the forward is very likely to leave the West Midlands club this summer.

“An add-on to this which I thought was really interesting,” Keen said.

“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.

“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.”

While £62.5 million is a relatively hefty fee for a player still with a relatively limited track record of scoring goals at the highest level, it certainly appears that this update regarding payment structure makes it a very convenient deal to enact.

This could attract Arsenal to Cunha, as it would save them time messing around in negotiations for someone else.

Matheus Cunha’s statistics this season

Fans are crying out for an out-and-out number nine to arrive at the Emirates, and Cunha certainly isn’t this.

The 25-year-old’s primary skills are his ball-carrying and his ruthless shooting, mostly from long-range, but he doesn’t find himself getting on the end of chances inside the box very often.

However, this profile could still be very useful in Arteta’s squad, occasionally being deployed as a striker depending on the opposition, but more frequently being utilised out wide.

The Gunners need to add a versatile attacking player who can be used in multiple positions, alongside a natural number nine.

It’s a significant price to pay for someone who may not be the marquee addition in the summer, but Cunha’s Premier League experience and eye-catching talent is probably worth the investment.