Journalist for Manchester City Simon Bajkowski has provided some information about Joao Cancelo‘s January departure.
One journalist has discussed a specific occurrence that occurred earlier in the season that might have been a turning point in how the club came to be where they are now, with the Citizens officially recovering the Premier League title.
Detailing Cancelo’s departure in January, Bajkowski
Speaking about Cancelo’s departure and what transpired behind the scenes, Bajkowski made the following remarks on a recent episode of the Manchester Evening News’ Talking City Podcast.
I doubt [Pep] Guardiola would ever say it, but it seriously helped, he remarked. I guess we should just reset the squad.
“It needed squad support since Cancelo was a very well-liked and talented player, but because of the deterioration in their relationship, it was thought that Cancelo’s frustration at not being selected would be detrimental to the team as a whole.
Cancelo wasn’t doing that, and by some accounts hadn’t really done that at Bayern Munich either, so losing him gave Guardiola more control over the team. You want players who want to play every game every week, but you also want players who do kind of accept and take it well, well enough when they aren’t in the team.
The Portuguese international has played in 14 Bundesliga games, starting 11, scoring one goal and assisting four others since joining Bayern on loan through the end of the season.
According to Bajkowski’s comments, it appears that allowing the 28-year-old to depart the Etihad Stadium in January had a significant and largely beneficial effect on the other members of Guardiola’s team.
Recent days have seen the City outcast linked to clubs like Arsenal and Barcelona in terms of potential summer transfers.
Because of this, we believe that the club may end up selling the player should a reasonable offer come their way, unless Guardiola feels that having the defender potentially back in his squad for next season will not be a bad thing.