Manchester City journalist Simon Bajkowski has shared some details regarding Joao Cancelo’s January exit.
With the Citizens officially regaining the Premier League title, one journalist has spoke about one particular incident that happened earlier in the season that may have been a turning point in seeing the team get to where they are now.
Bajkowski shares details on Cancelo’s January exit
Speaking on a recent episode of the Manchester Evening News’ Talking City Podcast, Bajkowski said this about Cancelo’s exit and what happened behind the scenes.
He said: “I don’t think [Pep] Guardiola would ever admit it but it kind of seriously helped. Kind of just like to reset the squad.
“It needed squad support because Cancelo was a really popular player and a really good player but relations between him and the manager reached such a low point it was felt that Cancelo being upset at not being in the team was detracting from the rest of the squad.
“You want players that want to play every game every week but you also want players that do kind of accept and take it well, well enough when they’re not in the team and Cancelo wasn’t doing that and by a few accounts hasn’t really done that at Bayern Munich either, so losing that gave Guardiola more control of the squad.”
Since joining Bayern on loan until the end of the season, the Portuguese international has made 14 Bundesliga appearances, starting 11 and delivering one goal and four assists.
Taking into account what Bajkowski had to say on the matter, it appears that the decision to allow the 28-year-old to leave the Etihad Stadium in January had a big and rather positive impact on the rest of the players in Guardiola’s ranks.
Recent days have seen the likes of Arsenal and Barcelona being linked with summer transfer moves for the City outcast.
Therefore, unless Guardiola feels that potentially having the defender back in his squad for next season will not be a negative thing, we feel that the club could well end up cashing in on the player should a suitable offer comes their way.
