Arsenal's hopes of signing Joao Cancelo this summer have been given a significant boost after Manchester City set a new asking price. The Portugal international was exiled from Pep Guardiola's squad after the conclusion of the World Cup which resulted in him joining Bayern Munich in the January transfer window on a six-month loan.
With the final match of the league season completed this past weekend in both the Bundesliga and Premier League, Cancelo's loan spell is over in Germany. In the contract signed that saw him leave Manchester in January, a €70million (£60.7m) buy option was also included, but that will not be activated by the German champions which will see Cancelo return to Manchester.
Guardiola appears to have no interest in keeping him in the squad for next season though, which opens the door for the Gunners to add Cancelo to their ranks. As an inverted full-back, Cancelo would be a perfect fit for Mikel Arteta's tactical set up which relies heavily on a full-back drifting inside and creating a possession overload in midfield.
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Oleksandr Zinchenko moved from Etihad Stadium to Arsenal along with Gabriel Jesus last summer and Cancelo could follow suit in the upcoming window. Despite the €70million (£60.7m) buy option that Bayern could have triggered, City have significantly lowered his asking price to half of that sum, according to a new report from Spanish outlet Sport.
They claim that Guardiola will sanction an exit if an interested club agree to pay €40m (£34.7m). Barcelona are also pushing to sign Cancelo this summer, but FFP problems could prevent the La Liga champions from completing a move.
Despite Jesus and Zinchenko nearly helping Arsenal beat City to the title, Guardiola's stance on selling more of his players to the Gunners does not look to have changed, according to 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."
Alongside Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan is another City star of interest to the Gunners this summer. The German's contract expires next month and if no extension is agreed he could leave the club on a free transfer with Barcelona also wanting to sign the midfielder.
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