Wolverhampton Wanderers have been dealt a potential blow in their bid to bring Matheus Cunha to Molineux in the January transfer window.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to David Ornstein, with the journalist revealing in a report for The Athletic that, despite the Old Gold having initially looked to be leading the race for the centre-forward this winter, as well as the 23-year-old being keen on a move due to the appointment of Julen Lopetegui, there are now doubts about the Brazil international’s switch to the West Midlands.
The transfer insider goes on to state that, despite Atletico Madrid’s willingness to complete a €50m (£43m) deal with Wolves for the signings of both Cunha and Felipe, there would now appear to be doubts that Wolves are unhappy with paying such an amount for the duo – something that has opened the door for the likes of Leeds United and Everton to move for the striker.
Lopetegui must move
While it is true that Cunha has somewhat struggled for form during his time at Atletico – scoring seven goals and providing eight assists over his 54 appearances for the LaLiga side – should Lopetegui believe he can help the 23-year-old refind his Hertha Berlin form at Molineux, the argument that the Spaniard simply must move for the striker is an easy one to make.
Indeed, the £26m-rated forward was devastating over his 11 Bundesliga appearances in his first half-season with Hertha back in 2019/20, hitting the back of the net on five separate occasions and providing his teammates with a further two assists – helping his new club secure an extremely respectable tenth-place finish in the top flight of German football that year.
The £49k-per-week attacker once again impressed over his 27 league fixtures in 2020/21, scoring seven goals, registering five assists and creating six big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.3 shots – 1.3 of which hit the target – making 1.8 key passes and completing 3.0 dribbles – the joint second-most in the division – per match.
These returns saw the player who Bruno Labbadia dubbed “special” average a quite extraordinary Sofascore match rating of 7.15, not only ranking him as Hertha’s best performer in the league but also as the joint 26th-best player in the Bundesliga as a whole.
As such, with Wolves in desperate need of a striker who knows where the back of the net is – with the Old Gold having scored a league-low eight goals in the Premier League this term – it would indeed appear worthwhile for Lopetegui to cough up Cunha’s asking price, as his signing could well prove the difference between top flight and second tier football for Wolves next season.