If someone told you 18 months back that Manchester City were looking to ship out Joao Cancelo, you would call them crazy. But a lot has happened in that period. Cancelo fell out with Pep Guardiola and joined Bayern for a half-season loan in January 2023. Now, after Bayern decided not to snag him up, he is still on the market. FC Barcelona is interested in signing the right-back and initial contacts have begun with Man City and Cancelo’s entourage.
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According to rumours, the Blaugrana and Man City are in negotiations over the transfer of Joao Cancelo. Midway through the previous season, the Spanish wingback became dissatisfied with his lack of playing time at Manchester City and moved on loan to Bayern Munich on the final day of January.
Although there was a buyout clause in the loan agreement with Bayern, Cancelo has now returned to Man City and has played in their preseason games. It doesn’t seem like Cancelo is a target for Bayern Munich.
Barcelona and Man City are now in negotiations, according to TalkSPORT. Instead of another loan, the Premier League champions would prefer to part ways with Cancelo permanently.
Barcelona using Dembele’s transfer amount to sign Cancelo
Barcelona will make a bid for Cancelo using some of the funds they received from selling Ousmane Dembele to PSG. Ousmane will be leaving to Paris-Saint Germain for 50 million. The Blaugrana team will be getting close to 27 million for the deal. Whereas the rest of the money will go to Dembele.
Talking about the same, Xavi said, ‘Ousmane Dembélé told us that he wants to leave and join PSG. We can’t compete, PSG bid is huge and out of the market — he spoke to Luis Enrique and Al Khelaifi. It hurts me because we took care of him to make him happy here. But we can’t compete, he’s leaving.‘
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He continued, ‘We have to reinforce the squad, I’m happy with the wingers we have but Dembélé’s departure weakens us. We need a pure right-back.’
While Kyle Walker appears eager to join Bayern Munich, Manchester City is battling to keep him. When the two teams gathered in Japan for preseason, he reportedly explored a deal with Bayern, but nothing has been decided as of yet. The choices for wing backs at Man City would be significantly weakened if Walker and Cancelo left
Barca interested in Bernardo Silva
When Ousmane Dembele’s transfer to Paris Saint-Germain is official, Barcelona has made midfielder Bernardo Silva their first objective.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Xavi Hernandez, the manager of the Blaugrana, is keen to sign the 28-year-old midfielder who is on the verge of leaving City and wants the team to give him top priority. Silva is interested in heading to Barcelona as well, and he is hoping that City manager Pep Guardiola honours his promise to permit Silva to depart should the team receive the proper offer.
Now it’s up to the Catalan club to put together a deal strong enough to convince City to sell the Portuguese star.
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