Exclusive: Why Pep Guardiola was left ‘a little bit afraid’ of Joao Cancelo before Bayern loan switch

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João Cancelo and Manchester City shocked the football world in the latter stages of the January transfer window as the player made a loan switch to Bayern Munich.

It’s now understood, as has been exclusively revealed by Christian Falk, that the Portuguese international’s exit was sanctioned in no small part due to Pep Guardiola’s concerns around the fullback ‘making trouble in City’.

“When he wasn’t playing any more for the latter – that became the ideal point to get him,” the BILD reporter exclusively told CaughtOffside in his latest Substack columnI heard that Pep Guardiola was a little bit afraid of Cancelo making trouble in City, so that was why he was ready to talk about the prospect of giving him away.”

What the Spaniard would make of Chelsea’s scattergun approach in the winter window and the potential conflicts an en masse arrival of signings could inspire one could only imagine.

Though with the Sky Blues now five points behind league leaders Arsenal – who critically have a game-in-hand on their title rivals – it’s evidently all hands on deck on the blue half of Manchester with the former Barcelona boss unwilling to brook any kind of internal incivilities in a bid to retain their league crown.

It’s an exit that now leaves City with less quality in the fullback positions, though, the manager’s move to playing three at the back may very well plug that gap for the foreseeable.

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