Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has not ruled out Joao Cancelo staying at the Etihad Stadium this summer.
The Portuguese international is training with the first-team squad but he has spent 18 months out on loan and, asked about the player’s future in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Guardiola said:
“He’s training with us. We will see, maybe stay, maybe go on loan. I don’t know yet. He’s training with us, behaving really well in the training sessions. He loves to play football. We will see.”
When pressed on whether Cancelo could play for City again, Guardiola replied:
“It can happen, yeah.”
Cancelo has failed to find a permanent move away from City
The 30-year-old initially left the Etihad during the 2023 January transfer window, joining Bayern Munich on loan. The Bundesliga giants had the opportunity to sign the fullback for €70m but they decided against taking up their option.
Cancelo then moved on a temporary basis to Barcelona last September. However, no purchase clause was included in the loan agreement so he returned to Manchester at the start of the summer.
Which club could Cancelo move to?
While Guardiola has suggested that the right-back could stay, there is still a feeling that the club will look to offload him if they receive a good enough offer before the transfer deadline on August 30th.
Back in April, it was reported that both Arsenal and Chelsea were interested in Cancelo, although it is believed the player’s preference would be to return to Barcelona.
The Catalan club could offer to loan the defender once again but, this time, an option to buy may be inserted in the contract. We will have to wait and see how things play out over the next couple of weeks.
