For Man City to continue to develop, Pep Guardiola must have complete autonomy over his first-team squad.
Those players who don’t agree with his way of thinking, whoever they are, are left out without a second thought or a look back. Pep way or not.
Given City’s financial power, the Catalan coach has the luxury of knowing that if he loses one of his players for a variety of reasons, he can bring in someone else of the right quality.
It’s a situation that not many other managers in world football, let alone in the Premier League, can afford.
Perhaps with that in mind, Joao Cancelo could have been offloaded to Bayern Munich, although City could not have expected the Bavarians to send him back at the end of the 2022/23 campaign with polite thanks, but no.
News #Cancel: Understand that Joao has many options. Barcelona is still one of them. Talks took place. But they cannot put pressure on him at this stage due to their financial situation.
Bayern decided not to activate the call option. A permanent deal was very unlikely… pic.twitter.com/2Pu81AX9UO
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) May 29, 2023
However, help may be at hand.
According to Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Barcelona have been in talks with the player but no progress can be made on Arsenal’s goal at the moment (according to football.london) due to the financial situation of Fair Play Barca.
Once the full extent of this is fully known, the Catalan club will be able to plan accordingly and there is potential for Cancelo to be included in the Barcelona squad for the 2023/24 season.
Until then, City and the player will likely continue to scour the market for a suitable opportunity.
