Journalist Sam Lee has revealed that Manchester City have no intention of having Joao Cancelo in their squad for next season.
After recently returning from a loan spell with Bayern Munich, who he joined during the previous January transfer window, the defender will reportedly be leaving the Citizens on a permanent basis this summer.
Now into July, no offers have come in as of yet for the full-back, which has since led to questions being raised about what could happen with him once City’s pre-season period starts and when the squad are due to set off for their tour of Asia later in the month.
Lee assesses Cancelo situation
Speaking on a recent edition of the Let Me Talk podcast, Lee said this about Cancelo, who City paid £60m to sign back in 2019, and what his situation could look like in the coming weeks.
He said: “All I know is they’re not planning for him to be there at all. They don’t want him to be there at all.
“But I’m just thinking if it doesn’t get sorted in the next few weeks, it could be a bit awkward. I mean once they go to Japan they could say ‘stay behind to work on a transfer,’ but then if there is actually nothing, he’s doing nothing for like two weeks, then it’s a bit harder.”
Taking into account how Pep Guardiola recently revealed that the club were so desperate to get rid of the 28-year-old in January that they would have even let him go to Manchester United, this makes it easy to see why they apparently have no intention of seeing him have a place in the squad moving forward.
With Lee now claiming that the club could allow the Portuguese international to not come along on their tour of Asia if it helps him sort out a transfer move elsewhere, it seems that the best option for all parties would be if this can happen as soon as possible and that City pick up a suitable fee for him.
