Pep Guardiola watched his Manchester City side lose the Community Shield to Arsenal on penalties yesterday – and there was no sign of Joao Cancelo.
The full-back had been featuring for City in their pre-season season tour of Asia.
He got minutes against Yokohama F.Marinos, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid.
That led to speculation that Cancelo was ready for a clean slate at City.
There were even reports suggesting that Pep was ready to give him a second chance and keep hold of him.
But yesterday, there was no sign of Cancelo in the City squad at Wembley.
That would perhaps suggest nothing has changed and that Pep does want him gone.
And after the game, the Spaniard spoke about the £60 million man.
Pep Guardiola explains Joao Cancelo absence in the Community Shield
A lot of fans were looking for Cancelo’s name especially yesterday.
While many are happy to see the back of him this summer, the Portugal international still has a lot of support.
So when the teamsheet came through and he was not included, some were left disappointed
After the game, Pep didn’t give too much away.
He said (via Goal): “He [Cancelo] has to go home to Portugal to sort something with his family.”
Cancelo may well have to ‘sort something’ with his family.
But who knows what that really means.
Of course at the moment, Cancelo is being strongly linked with a move to Barcelona.
It was reported a few days ago that the 29-year-old had agreed personal terms with the Catalan giants.
Cancelo is surely off
Cancelo – described previously by Paul Dickov as ‘outstanding’ – may have featured for City in Asia, but his absence yesterday did feel fairly significant.
The Community Shield may be just a glorified friendly in many people’s eyes.
But it’s the final game before the new season, and so, a good opportunity for managers to get one last look at their players before things get competitive.
Surely if Pep was planning to keep Cancelo he would have included him yesterday.
It would be a real surprise if Cancelo was named in the squad to face Burnley on Friday night.
