Pep Guardiola has shown he will not stand in the way if a member of his squad wishes to exit Manchester City.
Usually, it’s on good terms. Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan can all be filed under that category. Bernardo Silva and Aymeric Laporte may soon join the club.
Joao Cancelo may leave the Etihad this summer too, albeit perhaps there will not be so many glad-handed farewell pats on the back. The full-back crossed the English channel through to Germany under a black cloud in January.
It soon came out that there had been a rift between Guardiola and his left-back, which is perhaps mildly put. Cancelo - who was named in the World XI for 2022 shortly after his switch to Bayern Munich - was aggrieved about his playing time.
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The Portugal star was concerned after Nathan Ake had edged ahead of him in the left-back pecking order after the World Cup, despite playing the most minutes out of any City defender up to that point.
The details of how the sudden switch to Bayern arose are hazy, but it seems as though the departure was bordering on acrimonious. But just months after bending in a superb cross with the outside of his boot for Erling Haaland’s acrobatic winner against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, Cancelo was coming on to face City in the same competition.
He was greeted by boos from some sections of the home crowd as his parent club ran riot against the German giants in the quarter-final first leg. Cancelo didn’t have the smoothest of short stays at the Allianz Arena either.
Just nine matches into his stay, Julian Nagelsmann - who brought him into the club - was replaced by Thomas Tuchel. Cancelo found out from a pitch-side reporter after one of Portugal’s Euro 2024 qualifiers in March.
“I’m a little surprised” he said, before going into more straight-line talk about adapting to the new coach, but his face said a thousand words for him. Tuchel did not start him against Dortmund or City in the first leg, two of Bayern’s most important matches of the season at that point.
He went on to play 12 times, including nine starts, but Bayern have opted against triggering his £61.6m buy-out clause attached in his loan deal. And so, he will return to City where his future is less than certain.
Although, if Guardiola’s comments last month gave any sort of insight, Cancelo may in fact know what awaits him. "The reality was that we decided that he [Cancelo] had to leave and we didn't care where he was going, even if he wanted to go to [Manchester] United, which is our rival."
Those are quite stark comments from the City boss about a player still under contract. When asked about Cancelo’s future at the club, he said: "This is a matter of Txiki [Begiristain, sporting director], of City, of his representative and of the club that loves him."
The last four words may be up for debate and Cancelo might not be left dawdling in the corridors of the Etihad if there is no reconciliation of his relationship with Guardiola.
Cancelo must face up to the fact he asked for a transfer away from a side that won the Treble last season, including the Champions League. He has a Bundesliga winners medal to show for his decision, which isn’t a bad consolation given it took a Dortmund slip-up to allow Bayern to retain their title.
But the general consensus among City fans is that it would be a surprise he Cancelo stayed, and that perhaps tells the story.
While he won’t go to United, or likely even a Premier League rival, the urgency with which Guardiola wanted him out of the door in January looks ominous for a player whose loan club has just kicked him out too.
