Pep Guardiola Reveals Man City’s Surprising Perspective: ‘We Didn’t Care’ About Selling £60m Player to Man Utd
Pep Guardiola has stated that if Joao Cancelo had wanted to join Manchester United in January, Manchester City would have been willing to accommodate him.
The Spanish tactician gave his say on the £60 million (Sky Sports) man after disputing Xavi’s assertion that City obstructed his loan move to Barcelona, according to the Daily Star.
Things appear to have deteriorated between Manchester City and Joao Cancelo to the point where Pep Guardiola and co. were open to his going for Manchester United.
What Pep Guardiola said about Joao Cancelo and a possible move to Manchester United
In January, it was widely known that the Portuguese full-back’s relationship with both the Catalan manager and the players had soured.
In fact, once his loan move to Bayern Munich was made public, journalist Alex Brotherton published the 29-year-old’s wife’s Instagram account, in which she made a dig at the Sky Blues and Guardiola.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that if Joao Cancelo had been interested in joining Manchester United, the club would have gladly transferred him to their cross-town rivals.
“The reality was that we decided that he had to leave and we didn’t care where he was going, even if he wanted to go to United, which is our rival. There is his agent and the clubs, they agree.”
The Joao Cancelo saga may have contributed to City’s resurgence.
An interesting point to contemplate is that if Manchester City had not traded Joao Cancelo to Bayern Munich instead of Manchester United, albeit on loan, Pep Guardiola and co. might not have found their way back to their best last season.
Guardiola said after his team’s 4-2 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur that his team’s mindset had suffered.
Allowing a vital cog in his team to go in January must have sent a message to the rest of the squad that they needed to step up or be shown the door.
This choice could have been the catalyst for a mental transformation within the City camp, leading to larger and better things.
