Man City star Joao Cancelo in talks with Barcelona over transfer after falling out of favour with Guardiola
BARCELONA are in talks with Man City about signing Joao Cancelo, according to reports.
The Spanish wing-back made a January deadline-day loan move to Bayern Munich midway through last season having grown frustrated with his game time at Man City.
He appeared to fall out with manager Pep Guardiola who sanctioned his exit.
The loan move to Bayern included an option to buy but as it stands Cancelo has returned to Man City and has featured in their pre-season matches.
It does not appear Bayern Munich are interested in Cancelo.
According to TalkSPORT Barcelona are now in talks with Man City.
The Premier League champions would prefer to get rid of Cancelo on a permanent deal rather than another loan.
Barcelona will use some of their budget from selling Ousmane Dembele to PSG to bid for Cancelo.
Barcelona manager Xavi said: “Ousmane Dembélé told us that he wants to leave and join PSG. We can’t compete, PSG bid is huge and out of the market — he spoke to Luis Enrique and Al Khelaifi.
“It hurts me because we took care of him to make him happy here. But we can’t compete, he’s leaving.
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“We have to reinforce the squad, I’m happy with the wingers we have but Dembélé’s departure weakens us. We need a pure right-back.”
The news comes with Manchester City fighting to keep Kyle Walker but he seems keen on a move to Bayern Munich.
He reportedly discussed a deal with Bayern when the two teams met in Japan for pre-season but nothing has been agreed as of yet.
The potential departure of Walker and Cancelo would weaken the wing back options at Man City tremendously.