Joao Cancelo joining Bayern Munich on loan from Manchester City is one of the shock moves of the January transfer window, one that certainly seemed unthinkable earlier in the season.
The Portuguese full-back was a fixture in Pep Guardiola’s side in the first half of the season and, due to his rampant attacking talents, also a fixture in most fantasy football managers’ teams as well.
However, things changed dramatically for him after the World Cup, falling out of favour and he is now heading to the Bundesliga with Bayern having an option to buy him in the summer for £61.6m.
While Man City clearly have an immense squad, Pep Guardiola will have Sergio Gomez, Kyle Walker and Rico Lewis at his disposal at left-back and right-back respectively, so he was criticised by BBC Sport journalist Jordan Elgott for poor squad building.
Guardiola loves versatile players and has Nathan Ake who’s impressed at left-back recently, but Gomez isn’t viable cover. Aymeric Laporte isn’t either, so Elgott wasn’t happy.
So unless City sign a new left-back in the remaining time of the window, they go into a huge six months with:
Kyle Walker
Rico Lewis
Nathan Ake
Sergio GomezJust not good enough for a team expected to win the Premier League and Champions League. https://t.co/FUUpks4KLo
— Jordan Elgott (@JElgott) January 30, 2023
Left-back was already a problem area this season after Oleksandr Zinchenko was sold to Arsenal last summer, so Cancelo’s departure makes the issue even worse.
The Blues are claimed to be looking to replace Cancelo, though it is yet to be seen whether the club will be active in the final hours of the January transfer window or wait until the summer.
