Ken RussoAccording to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, FC Barcelona will try and go after MCFC full-back Joao Cancelo if Ousmane Dembele moves to PSG.
Barcelona are amidst massive financial turmoil which is showing no signs of ending but if they can sell Ousmane Dembele in the next few days, they will bring in at least €50 million. The Frenchman’s contract has a release clause of €50 million which is valid until the end of July following which, the release clause doubles to €100 million.
Dembele has reportedly agreed to join PSG and once this deal is wrapped up, Barcelona are planning to use some of that money to bring in Joao Cancelo from Manchester City.
Arsenal are one of the favourites to land the Gunners as Mikel Arteta wants to bring in a proper right-back into his squad for the new season but if Barcelona have the financial resources ready then Arsenal will find it really difficult to sign the Portugal international. Joao Cancelo is currently valued at €50 million but if Barca can get €100 million from PSG then they won’t spending €55-60 million of that fee on the MCFC man. The Gunners have a big transfer budget this summer but they have already spent more than €120 million on Declan Rice so the last thing they will want is to get into an unnecessary transfer war with Barcelona.
Will Barcelona be able to land Joao Cancelo ahead of Arsenal?
If the Bluagrana have money to spare then they can very easily challenge Arsenal but the main issue will be convincing Manchester City for a move.
At the start of the summer, it was almost certain that Joao Cancelo will be sold by the club because he has no future under the current boss. There were even talks of a loan move for the 2023/24 season but Man City were adamant about getting him off the books permanently.
However, according to The Sun(h/t Football London), Pep Guardiola seems to have had a change of heart.
The report is claiming that the MCFC manager has been impressed with Cancelo’s attitude during the pre-season tour and now, he does not wish to sell the full-back any more.
Last week, Guardiola had nice things to say about Joao Cancelo and immediately there were whispers that the pair have mended their broken relationship.
“He is here. Joao has been so important for us in the past,” the Spanish manager said, after City’s friendly against Yokohama F. Marinos. “He is back here and is part of the group. We will see what happens.”
Now, if the Sun’s reporting is accurate then Barcelona and Arsenal will have no chance of landing the 29-year-old. Man City have already lost Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva is also pushing for an exit so in such a scenario, their manager wouldn’t want to lose a player who’s performing well during the pre-season tour.
As far as Joao Cancelo is concerned, he’s shown no signs of discontent since returning from his loan spell with Bayern Munich so maybe he also wants to remain at the Etihad Stadium and regain his place in the starting line up.
