Deco has now admitted that Barcelona will try to sign Joao Cancelo from Manchester City permanently in 2024 – on one condition.
Barcelona’s Sporting Director was quoted on the Portugal international by Fabrizio Romano.
So, what did Deco say about Joao Cancelo? Let’s take a look…
What’s the story?
Well, the 46-year-old confirmed that Barcelona do not hold an option to buy the 29-year-old next summer, but admitted that a permanent deal will be explored if he performs well.
Deco said: “There’s no buy option in both João Félix and Cancelo deals – one year loan. If they perform at good level, we will try to keep them at the club. We will be on it, this is not something being discussed today”.
Manchester City will therefore hope that the £60m man does well at the Camp Nou, as he doesn’t appear to have a future under Pep Guardiola.
As reported by the Guardian, the Spaniard was left dismayed by the manner in which Cancelo reacted to losing his place last season, before he was eventually loaned out to Bayern Munich.
Clearly, that ill feeling between Guardiola and the full-back did not change over the summer, as he has now been sent away to Barcelona.
Manchester City unlikely to get the Joao Cancelo fee back
As things stand, the Citizens may have to take a fairly significant loss on Cancelo unless he has a phenomenal season at Barcelona.
£60m is a large amount of money, and now that the football world knows there is some kind of attitude problem with the Portuguese defender, few clubs will want to spend that sum on his services, regardless of how talented he is from a technical aspect.
Hopefully, Cancelo does enjoy a strong season at Barcelona, and any fee received from his sale can be reinvested into someone who Guardiola can trust to be professional in a squad where rotation occurs often.
