Arsenal are said to be interested in signing Joao Cancelo this summer after a decision on the full-back’s immediate future has been made.
The 29-year-old has impressed since his move to Manchester City in 2019, though despite being a regular within Pep Guardiola’s side, was surprisingly allowed to leave the club in January, joining Bayern Munich on loan for the remainder of the season.
Cancelo has since denied having a ‘fight’ with Guardiola but admitted he no longer ‘felt important to the team’ prompting his move to Bavaria, where he subsequently started 11 Bundesliga games for Bayern Munich, scoring once and laying on four assists in the league.
Manchester City negotiated a €70 million (£61m) buyout clause in the deal that took Cancelo to Munich, though according to Fabrizio Romano, Bayern have decided not to take up that option, with the full-back now set to return to Manchester.
Romano adds that Manchester City are ‘planning to sell’ the three-time Premier League winner this summer and ‘want to make a profit’ on him, the English champions having signed from Juventus in a deal worth €60m in 2019, with Danilo going in the opposite direction.
He says that Arsenal are among the clubs to ‘appreciate’ Cancelo, with Mikel Arteta having briefly worked with the player during his time as Guardiola’s assistant at the Etihad.
Arteta already made two raids on his former club last summer, taking Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from City to Arsenal, with the two players helping the Gunners to secure their first return to the Champions League since 2016/17.
Romano adds that Barcelona are also keen on signing Cancelo, though describes their situation as ‘not easy’ given the club’s ongoing financial issues.
