Pep Guardiola has the bulk of his Manchester City squad again after a handful of players returned to training – and there has been an update about Joao Cancelo.
Manchester City take on Manchester United in the Community Shield this Saturday, and it is a chance for revenge after the defeat in the FA Cup final.
City have just returned from the US after a productive couple of weeks that saw the team play four matches – against Celtic, AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea.
A number of young players made good impressions, with James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly both now confirmed as new first-team options ahead of the new season.
New signing Savinho has started training with the team now, and a handful of players came back on Tuesday – including Joao Cancelo.
Joao Cancelo is back training with Manchester City, but he’ll make new push to join Barcelona
Cancelo featured for Portugal at Euro 2024 and was one of the players to receive an extended break after the tournament.
Pep Guardiola would not have had him on the tour of the US though, as the player is still not in his plans.
The pair reportedly fell out midway through the 2022/23 after Cancelo had a poor reaction to the game time he was getting at the time. He was then loaned out to Bayern Munich for the remainder of the campaign.
After returning last summer, Cancelo – who cost City £60 million – then headed to Barcelona for the 2023/24 season – and made a good impression.
Barcelona want to re-sign him, and they have been his only choice of destination.
City are insisting on a paid loan with a mandatory purchase option, which has proven to be a sticking point so far this summer.
Interestingly, Cancelo has now returned to training at City, as per SPORT, who say that he will make another push to join Barca. He has apparently asked the Spanish giants to ‘unblock’ his situation.
For now though, Cancelo is having to train with his parent club. City Xtra have actually shared pictures of the player in full training gear at the CFA via their website.
What is also interesting is that none of these Cancelo pictures appear on City’s official website.
Not an ideal situation
So Cancelo is back at the CFA, which is something neither he nor Pep particularly wants.
The situation has never changed, and Pep is keen for the player to move on after what happened in the 2022/23 season.
The issue is that Barcelona are Cancelo’s only choice, but they cannot afford to pay any money for him this summer. And seemingly, they are not wanting to commit to a mandatory purchase option.
So for now, Cancelo is stuck at City.
The longer it drags out, the more it probably favours Barcelona. City could well end up caving, because they can’t just be keeping him around with him not playing.
