Leeds United have been dealt a potentially huge blow in their bid to bring Matheus Cunha to Elland Road in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by Spanish publication Marca, who claim that, despite David Ornstein recently suggesting that Victor Orta could launch a move for the centre-forward should Wolverhampton Wanderers not be able to afford a deal, Atletico Madrid are now close to agreeing a fee with the Premier League side for the transfer of the Brazil international.

The report went on to state that the 23-year-old is set to leave the Metropolitano Stadium after an uninspiring year-and-a-half spell in Madrid, with the striker’s inability to find the form to earn a call-up to Tite’s Brazil squad for the Qatar World Cup said to have sped up the LaLiga side’s desire to move the attacker on in January.

Big blow

While it is true that Cunha’s return of seven goals and eight assists over 54 appearances since his €26m (£22m) move to Atletico back in the summer of 2021 is not the most impressive haul for a number nine, considering just how impressive the attacker was during his time with Hertha BSC, the news Wolves are close to landing the 23-year-old is sure to come as a big blow to Orta.

Indeed, over his 11 Bundesliga appearances in his debut campaign with Hertha back in 2019/20, the £26m-rated talent was in exceptional attacking form, scoring five goals and providing his teammates with two assists – helping his side secure a very respectable tenth-place finish in the German top flight that season.

The £49k-per-week forward once again caught the eye over his 27 league outings in 2020/21, bagging seven goals, registering five assists and creating six big chances for his teammates, in addition to 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 fixture.

These metrics saw the player who Bruno Labbadia dubbed “special” average a simply sensational 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, considering the fact that Patrick Bamford is continuing to struggle with injury this season, it is clear for all to see that Leeds are in rather desperate need of a new centre-forward in January, leading us to believe that missing out on Cunha will come as a seismic blow to Orta – with the director of football now needing to turn his attention in January elsewhere.