Pep Guardiola is not a manager who allows his players to intimidate him, as it was once again evident from Joao Cancelo’s shock loan to Bayern Munich. The Portuguese full-back has already landed in Munich to undergo his medical with the Bundesliga side and sign the loan contract until the end of the season. However, what’s more surprising is that City have also included a £61m buy option in Cancelo’s loan.
In Joao Cancelo, City have let a player leave who helped them win two Premier League titles since joining from Juventus in 2019. Cancelo had managed 6 goals and 16 assists across the two league winning seasons, much to joy of the fans as well as Guardiola. However, it all came down trembling this season, as a bust up between the player and his manager ended with the club ousting him to Bayern.
City sanctioned Joao Cancelo’s move after he ‘threatened to leave’
No one could believe Joao Cancelo being shipped out to Bayern, that too in the middle of a season where City are sitting second in the league and could lose out the title to leaders Arsenal who have a five point advantage. However, it was a decision which had lot behind it, mostly on City’s training ground. According to Daily Mail’s Jack Gaughan, it was a bust between Cancelo and Guardiola which bore these consequences for the 28-year-old.
It was over Cancelo’s gametime, which evidently had decreased since he returned from the World Cup with Portugal. The full-back has started only three of City’s ten outings and even accumulated zero minutes in five of those games. However, the tipping point, according to Gaughan was when the versatile full-back learnt on the training ground that he wasn’t going to start in the FA Cup win over Arsenal. Gaughan revealed in his column for the Daily Mail:
“The full-back [Joao Cancelo], who is expected to join Bayern Munich on loan, is said to have reacted angrily after he learned that he would not be in the starting XI for City’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal on Friday night. Cancelo has been vocal in recent weeks at a lack of game time and has become disruptive to the squad while his relationship with Guardiola progressively deteriorated after the World Cup.
“The 28-year-old Portugal international threatened to leave the club, and such was the severity of the situation, City gave Cancelo the green light to depart once he brought a loan offer from Bayern to the table with the relationship between player and manager beyond repair.”
Cancelo’s reduced minutes was a result of academy boy Rico Lewis’ emergence, impressing massively on being called upon in the recent games. The 18-year-old has started 6 of City’s last 10 last games, accumulating 480 minutes; a whopping 202 more than Cancelo. The former Juventus full-back couldn’t sustain the competition it seems and rather confronted his coach, who has a reputation of calling no-nonsense decisions in such moments.
With Joao Cancelo now gone, it was being expected that City will quickly move in for a replacement. However, that’s not the case apparently as Guardiola is happy to have Nathan Ake and the young Sergio Gomez as his two options on the left. If Bayern decide to trigger Cancelo’s buy option in the summer, then only City would go for a replacement, with Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell and Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney their long admired targets.