Arsenal have been given a boost in their summer transfer pursuit of Manchester City's Joao Cancelo with Pep Guardiola's stance on his possible exit seemingly clear. The Gunners have been linked with a move for Cancelo and if pulled off it would see them repeat some transfers secured 12 months ago which saw Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus sign from City.
After a turbulent start to the season for Cancelo, which saw him surprisingly dropped on numerous occasions, the Portugal international joined Bayern Munich on loan in January. In that contract signed for his six-month spell in Germany, there is a €70million (£60.9m) buy option, but according to Sky Germany, that is highly unlikely to be activated for financial reasons.
Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel did however, hint that it's possible Cancelo may stay with an admission on the player last week. In a press conference, he said: “I have the impression that Joao Cancelo feels very comfortable here. But all parties are part of the decision. His desire in training is unique. I have the feeling that he's really happy. We'll discuss everything else after the end of the season."
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Cancelo's ability to play as an inverted full-back makes him the perfect player for Arteta but there is some concern at Emirates Stadium that City won't allow Cancelo to join their title rivals a year on from Jesus and Zinchenko's moves, according to the Telegraph.
There appear to be numerous stumbling blocks that could prohibit Arsenal moving for Cancelo, with his financial demands another. However, the Gunners look set to be heavily backed by owner Stan Kroenke this summer with a defensive addition looking likely.
As versatile options, Mohamed Simakan has been linked with the Gunners while Ivan Fresneda is another inverted full-back with admirers in north London. However, signing Cancelo could be a game-changer for Arteta and those hopes of bringing him to the club look to have been boosted with Guardiola's exit stance made clear by Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio.
Speaking to wettfreunde about Guardiola's thoughts surrounding Cancelo, he said: "I don't think Guardiola is a coach who'll say no, you don't have to go there - because he's superior. He thinks he's superior in every dynamic situation in football.
"I don't think he'd put a negative situation for him (Joao Cancelo) to go and I don't think that Guardiola wants to say no to Arsenal or Arteta because he's a big friend of Arteta. I don't think he'll say no."
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