One of the most unexpected January transfer news dropped on Monday, the eve of Deadline Day. As revealed by the Athletic, Joao Cancelo, a key figure in Manchester City's dominance in recent seasons, had agreed to leave the Premier League giants for Bayern Munich.
And despite being one of the best players in his position, the Cityzens sanctioned his departure, loaning the Portuguese to the German giants in a deal that included a whopping $76.3M buy option.
This news caught everyone by surprise. Not only was Guardiola's side letting go of one of their most talented players, but the reigning Premier League champions were doing this in a season when they need to stage a comeback if they are to successfully defend their title.
The mega-rich club currently sit second in the table, five points behind leaders Arsenal, and despite their recent 1-0 FA Cup victory over the Gunners, not everyone is confident in Manchester City's ability to overturn that deficit and win the league.
This thus begs the question: why did the English giants let Joao Cancelo go? The Athletic, the publication that broke the player's loan move to the Allianz Arena, has now answered that question and it's just what everyone was speculating.
According to the aforementioned news outlet, the fullback became a problematic character in the dressing room after losing his spot in the starting eleven, with Pep preferring Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake, Kyler Walker, and even John Stones over the former Juventus ace since the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Everything began to deteriorate following Manchester City's Premier League encounter with Chelsea, which they won 1-0. The Cityzens surprisingly struggled in the first 45 minutes, which resulted in Cancelo being taken off at half-time. The player was infuriated by that decision and here is where everything sparked.
Roughly a week later, the Manchester heavyweights took on Southampton in the Carabao Cup quarterfinals and Joao started this game as well. The 28-year-old did not impress on the pitch but despite this, Guardiola kept him in the lineup in City's following fixture: the Manchester Derby.
And once again, the defender struggled, with Pep criticizing his fullbacks in his post-match interview after suffering a 2-1 defeat away to Manchester United. In the three games that followed, Guardiola dropped the player to the bench and opted against giving him any minutes on the pitch.
In the clash with Wolves, Cancelo was infuriated at seeing Lewis start over him and thus marched straight from the team bus to the dugout to sit by himself. The final straw came in the FA Cup encounter with Arsenal as Joao "did not pay attention in the tactical meetings and did not listen to instructions from backroom staff" after being left out of the lineup.
This fiasco had been a running theme for weeks. Guardiola and his staff had gotten fed up with the player and thus the decision to offload him was taken quickly. Fortunately, Bayern Munich held a long-standing interest in Joao and decided to swoop in for the Portuguese ace due to the injury to Mazraoui.
The two-time Premier League winner swiftly wrapped up his move to Bayern Munich and was unveiled on Deadline Day. The player was handed the no.22 jersey and will now be focused on helping the German giants win the Bundesliga title and UEFA Champions League.
