Coming up on our weekly football show: A look at the year for the Welsh football setup, How important Matheus Cunha is for Wolves and looking ahead to the January transfer window for a number of clubs.
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00:00Coming up on our weekly football show, a look at the year for Welsh football, how important
00:07Mateus Cunha is for Wolves and looking ahead to the January transfer window for a number
00:13of clubs. All this and more to come.
00:17James, looking at Welsh football as a nation in 2024 and obviously a bit of a strange situation
00:24at the start of the year and into the middle of the year as well when obviously, you know,
00:28Rob Page, a real reluctancy after the World Cup campaign and then, you know, you come in and you
00:34really hope and expect to qualify for the European Championships and it didn't go his way or the
00:40nation's way in that aspect. A real strange qualifying campaign, obviously that win against
00:44Croatia and then, you know, losses against sides that they certainly shouldn't have been losing to.
00:50You know, we mentioned it before, it was a real strange position for Welsh football fans to be in.
00:56You were sort of looking at the ageing side as well and young players who weren't getting a
01:02call-up who probably did deserve it and then a massive change of tides went on. Craig Bellamy
01:06comes in and straight away he sort of, you know, expresses how much he cares for Welsh football
01:12and how high the standards need to be set and the expectations to go and qualify for major
01:19tournaments. What's it been like, the transition throughout the year of, you know, obviously coming
01:24off the back of Rob Page's tenure and then actually a breath of fresh air with Craig Bellamy,
01:29obviously a former player as well, has made a massive impact so far and a real, you know,
01:35fantastic 2024 in terms of Bellamy's time so far. Yeah, it was a turnaround but I'm not sure we
01:43expected it to be where it is now. I'm not saying obviously we've, you know, won every game 4-0 but
01:47guys, it's a completely different side than we saw at the start of the year. Rob Page did so much for
01:52Welsh football, the World Cup and everything like that but Craig Bellamy, it's just, it's been a
01:58different game with him already. It's, you know, he's had six games so far, hasn't lost a game,
02:04three wins, three draws, looked really difficult to beat. Like, we have two draws against Turkey
02:09who are a decent unformed side at the moment but yeah, it's just been, it's kind of unexpected. I
02:16think a lot of Welsh fans were quite excited about Craig Bellamy and just, you know, it's Craig
02:20Bellamy. He's like one of those characters that everyone kind of knows in football and especially
02:25all Welsh fans kind of know in football but he's, yeah, he's a good football manager as well as a
02:32good character and a good footballer but he clearly knows what he's doing. He said all the right
02:37things. He did it from his first press conference as well. I remember coming out of there, speaking
02:42to a few of the other reporters, we were all saying, yeah, he knows what he's talking about.
02:46He's saying the right things at least at this point, see how it goes. But yeah, he's brought
02:51that forward with performances as well and the team looked like they want to play for him. He's
02:56spoken so highly about all the players, the young players coming through, the prospects, you know,
03:02hopefully a World Cup kind of thing. He's saying the right things and he's backing it up and I
03:07think that we've got a lot more to come from Welsh football in 2025. So Charles, looking at Matthias
03:13Cunha of Wolverhampton Wonders, I mean, what a player, what a signing he's been. Let's be honest,
03:18Wolves have not been great this season, it's fair to say. Certainly the shining light of Wolves'
03:23team under Gary O'Neill at the moment is Matthias Cunha. Of course, the quality, some of the finishes
03:28he managed to put in as well were just unbelievable. I mean, just how important is a player like that
03:34to Wolves at the moment because you have other parts of the team where the quality is not really
03:40there. I think it has to be said and, you know, Gary O'Neill can only get so much out of some of
03:45those players. But then you've got that one sort of talisman who's sort of dragging the rest of
03:49the team along with him and, if anything, it does actually boost morale a little bit the fact that
03:53you've got someone as good as him. Obviously, you've got January coming up and you don't want to
03:56lose a player like that. But just how important in the here and now is he and if he is to stay for
04:01the rest of the season, can he be the one who makes sure Wolves do not go down just on his own?
04:08Yeah, I think the simple answer to that is probably yes. I mean, you look at a number of sides who've
04:14escaped that relegation fight over a number of years and they do always tend to have a top player
04:19who's just, you know, outshining the rest and producing some incredible moments to just help
04:24them dig out. But, I mean, with Cunha, it starts from the sort of back end of last season, actually,
04:30when he was so, so good and he went on an amazing streak after returning from injury and he came
04:36back into the Wolves side and he was so, so strong at performances. Gary O'Neill has been
04:43vocal in saying he's played a decent part in where Cunha's got to. Wolves fans, after the start to
04:50the Premier League season, might be a bit critical on Gary O'Neill. But, in all fairness to him,
04:55he has certainly got the best out of Cunha, given him that space and freedom in the ten role.
05:01I mean, 2024 has been an incredible year for Mateus Cunha. Maybe not so for Wolves,
05:06they missed out on a Wembley trip against Coventry at Molyneux, where that sort of
05:11spiralled down the back end of last season. They started this season fairly poorly as well,
05:16with a tough run of games and they just were really struggling to find any points, really.
05:21But Mateus Cunha has been a certain shining light throughout 2024 and, yeah, you know,
05:27January coming up, it's a massive moment for Wolves to really ensure that anything that comes
05:32in for him, they keep him at the club. It's been so important, obviously. Gary O'Neill's
05:38been speaking so much about how Wolves haven't been able to buy a striker, profit and sustainability
05:43rules. We've seen how that's impacted lots of Forrest and Everton, so Wolves had to stick in
05:46line. And Cunha's stepped up into a striker position that he's not full number nine,
05:51really. He's more of a false nine or a winger or someone who can come in from wide. He's not
05:56always been that figure. He's not a physical presence. But the way he uses his body,
06:00he backs into defenders, he turns off the ball, he plays one-twos, he dribbles the players.
06:05And these have been so crucial. Looking at Everton and the January window, obviously,
06:11you know, we've mentioned a number of times the lack of finances they've had to work with,
06:17you know, with the takeover coming in and the sort of rebuild possibly happening within the next
06:21year or so. How important is this January window? Obviously, Everton, sorry, don't want to fall
06:27into that trap of a relegation fight again. They want to be continuing to fighting it. So how
06:33important is January for them? Yeah, it'll be interesting. I think the takeover, you'd like to
06:39hope, is going to be completed by then. But will Everton be massively affected in terms of what
06:46they can do in the markets? I'm not too sure because of profits and sustainability rules. But
06:52look, I'm sure the Freakins would like to give Everton some money to go out and spend and bring
06:58in a couple of players. If not, Sean Dyche might have to be careful in what he does. He might
07:08be a little bit like the summer where he has to get deals in that work for the club in terms of
07:13finances. Personally, I'd like to see Everton go out and get a left back. Vitaly Mikhalenko is the
07:20only out and out option at the minute and he hasn't quite hit the same heights as he did
07:27last season. You know, he was solid last season, but he struggled a little bit. Maybe that's
07:32against the backdrop of the ankle injury. He suffers in the Merseyside Derby and he raced
07:37back to get fifth of the Euros. He had problems again in the summer and maybe just hasn't quite
07:43got over that injury. I think competition is always a good thing in squads as well.
07:49A little bit of pace out wide is what Everton are lacking. Jesper Lindström has done okay so far.
07:56He's still acclimatised. I know he can add that little bit of pace, but they need more from the
08:00wingers I think. Iliman Indai deserves a go in the number 10 role. Maybe Jack Harrison hasn't
08:08quite done it so far this season, so some additional pace definitely. Then it might
08:15depend on what happens with maybe, will there be any more outgoings? I don't know. Obviously,
08:21the one that you're looking at is Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He's into the final year of his contract
08:27years ago. Whatever they make will be pure profit on the books, which would be good for PSR rules,
08:33but are Everton willing to take that risk? Is it worth selling Dominic Calvert-Lewin for,
08:39I don't know, ÂŁ10 million maybe? Maybe a bit less, only to have one fewer option up front?
08:49Then you're struggling. We all know the finances that it means to stay in the Premier League,
08:54especially with the moves to the new stadium coming. I think Shaun Dyson,
08:59director of football at Kevin Fellow, will be looking at it, thinking what they can do,
09:03but it might be difficult again.
09:05Ahead to January now. It's obviously a big window. Liverpool, they're famous,
09:10they had that massive window in January a couple of seasons ago. Looking forward,
09:15what do they need from January? Because so far this season, they've made a real impact on the
09:22league and in Europe as well. It's hard to add to a side where you can't really see a clear
09:29area that needs improving.
09:32It is, but I think maybe that's been the complaint from Liverpool fans in the past. For example,
09:40when they won the Champions League, when they won the league, Liverpool didn't really strengthen
09:44the squad. Is this a moment to capitalise now? At the minute, the top of the league,
09:52five points ahead of Man City, that could go to ace if they win that game at Anfield next month.
10:00We can't let this position slip, so do we go out and get a couple more bodies in to bolster the
10:07squad? The one position you're probably looking at, obviously, is central midfield, of course.
10:12You know, as I said before, Anna Slott clearly showed his hands by looking to sign Martin
10:18Zupomendy in the summer. He didn't get that one over the line. I don't think that one has ever
10:22gone away. I would like to think that if a deal could be done, then Liverpool would be in position
10:30to go and swoop for Zupomendy because they were willing to pay the money in the summer and the
10:37midfielder has a release clause. So that's something you could maybe look at doing.
10:43They obviously maybe looked at getting a centre-back in. Lenny Ioro was one that they put
10:47the fielders out for but didn't think he was worth the wages. So maybe if he's a central defender,
10:53you're looking at that. I think a lot of supporters wouldn't be averse to getting
10:57in a new left-back if it was the right player. Andy Robertson and Costa Simac have split the
11:03position so far this season, very much being number two for the previous four seasons under
11:10JĂŒrgen Klopp but he's made good improvements. But Robertson's 30, Simac's 28. Is he ever
11:16realistically going to be first choice? No. What happens beforehand? So an up-and-coming left-back
11:23potentially is something that fans would like to see. The boy at Bournemouth, Kerkes,
11:33is one who's been linked. Richard Hughes, Liverpool Sporting Director signs him when he was
11:37at Bournemouth as their Technical Director. So clearly there's a link there. So I don't think
11:44it'll be a mad January for Liverpool but they've shown in the past, as you said, that they're
11:49willing to spend money. Virgil van Dijk, Lewis Diaz and Kody Gakko, three signs that Liverpool
11:54are prepared to splash the cash if they think they're the right player.