The breakdown in relationship between Joao Cancelo and Pep Guardiola has been no secret, with the pair clearly struggling to work together.
That’s seen the fullback leave Manchester City on two separate loan deals. First he went to Bayern Munich and is currently at Barcelona, so he’s keeping his standards up.
For a while the Catalan media have been making it clear that Barcelona want to keep Cancelo in the longer term. In terms of a permanent transfer there’s been talk of them wanting to pay as little as ?20m.
Such an amount feels unrealistic, but Barcelona want to use the Guardiola and Cancelo situation to their advantage. If there’s no chance of the pair getting on together, and the player insists he’s only going to the Blaugrana then it’s thought there’ll be a position of negotiation strength. The man himself has been speaking to the Portuguese media during the current international break, and was asked about his relationship with the Manchester City manager.
A Bola asked how he reacted to claims from Guardiola that Cancelo didn’t have a good attitude about some teammates playing instead of him, to which he responded: “Lies were told! I was never a bad companion for them and you can ask either Aké or Rico.”
He continued: “I think Manchester City were a bit ungrateful to me when they said that, because I was a very important player in the years I was there. I never failed in my commitment to the club, to t...