8 months ago
48 Arsenal are ready to swoop in for Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo.
The Portuguese international is currently on loan at Barcelona where he has impressed the La Liga giants. In 32 appearances across all competitions, he has scored contributed to 8 goals, scoring 4 and assisting another 4.
The player has a three-year contract remaining at Manchester City but has completely fallen out with manager Pep Guardiola. There is little to no chance of him ever playing for the club again, which means the player is poised to leave the club in the summer, either on loan or permanently.
Barcelona not willing to pay Cancelo’s asking price
Barcelona are keen on securing him on a permanent deal at the end of the season, however, they may not be able to do so due to financial constraints.
The Sun reports that Manchester City are valuing him at £40m, and despite having the first option to sign him, the Catalan giants insist the price is too high for them.
It is said that while the player himself prefers to stay in Spain with Barcelona, the club are not willing to pay anything beyond a loan fee for another year.
Joao Canceloa in action for Barcelona
Arsenal ready to swoop in for Joao Cancelo
If a move to Barcelona does not materialise, the report claims that Arsenal will swoop in for the highly-rated fullback.
Arteta knows him well from his time at Manchester City as an assistant manager and will be keen to reunite with him.
It will not be the first time the Spaniard has raided his old club, with him previously signing Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko.
And Manchester City may not have a problem sending Cancelo off to their Premier League rivals as he himself previously said.
He told Sport:
“We decided that Joao had to leave and we didn’t care where, even if he wanted to go to Manchester United, who are our rival.”
