Joao Cancelo returned from the World Cup in a gloomy state of mind, and the result of that is a move to Bayern Munich on loan. Pep insists on a tight ship.
After their 1-0 win against Arsenal in the FA Cup on Friday night, Pep Guardiola was asked about Mikel Arteta’s decision to leave some of his first-team regulars for the game. “Bernardo didn’t play, Kyle Walker didn’t play, Mister Cancelo didn’t play,” he replied. “If we lost, you’d say why didn’t they play?” Was the formalisation of one of these players’ names a huge hint that Joao Cancelo and Manchester City didn’t have much longer left together?
Although the bad blood which built up between Cancelo and the club began to accelerate following his return from a disappointing World Cup, there has always been a possibility that this particular player could combust in this way. Stories relating to his attitude were already in the public domain when he first signed for Manchester City for £24m in August 2019.
During a previous loan spell at Inter, Cancelo argued with coach Luciano Spalletti during the 2017/18 season over which position he should be playing and there were also question marks over his mentality when he signed for Juventus.
The bottom line with Cancelo seems to be that he is unhappy when he’s not in the team and playing in the position in which he feels he should be playing. These are all completely understandable reactions from a professional footballer, but where Cancelo seems to differ from the majority is his inability to hide his annoyance when things aren’t quite going his way.
Dropped to the bench for the group games of the World Cup finals by Portugal, Cancelo was already said to be in a tetchy frame of mind when he returned to England after the tournament, and that will not have been helped by started only three of City’s ten fixtures since returning from international duty in Qatar.
Having failed to get on the pitch for their last two Premier League games against Spurs and Wolves, it was rumoured that he wasn’t paying attention during tactical meetings or to instructions from the coaching staff.
It says a lot for the extent to which Pep Guardiola expects to run a tight ship at Manchester City that Cancelo’s shenanigans were only tolerated for a few weeks. It’s hardly a surprise, either. Guardiola has long had a ‘no bad faces’ policy at the club, in which players who are not making the first team are expected to be supportive of…
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