Manchester City remain firm with Barça over Joao Cancelo
City still prioritise a transfer and Barça can't afford it
Xavi Hernandez rates Joao Cancelo very highly and has been pushing FC Barcelona to prioritize signing the Portuguese. The Blaugrana have been working to make it happen although the sporting department do not rate him over some of the other options.
Talksport claim that Barça have already contacted Manchester City, but the European champions are not very keen on a loan move and are demanding a transfer deal as they may have other offers on the table. Back in January, as Xavi explained, City refused to loan Cancelo to Barça and sent him to Bayern Munich instead.
The Blaugrana coach believes that Cancelo is a world-class specialist on the right flank and would be a player who would walk straight into the starting XI, so Koundé, Christensen, Araujo, Eric Garcia and Íñigo Martínez, would share the minutes in the centre-back position, where the position they prefer.
The Portuguese international can play on both flanks, he can venture into attacking third and deliver threatening balls, as well as score goals. The latter is a skill he improved a lot at City.
Cancelo wants to come to Barça, but his salary will not be reduced either, so the cost of the operation could be high. Barça rule out a transfer, although they would be willing to grant an optional purchase clause. A loan deal could still be expensive.
City, if they do not sell him, will demand a loan fee of around ten million euros, plus the full payment of the player's wages. At the cost of the club, it could mean an outlay of more than 20 million euros and the Catalans do not see this as clear because it could prevent them from signing other players.
That is why Barça's new sporting director, Deco, has begun to negotiate the signing of Ivan Frenseda, from Valladolid, who he believes will be one of the best right-backs on the continent in the future. A player who can be signed now at an affordable price, but in two years will cost a lot more. In this position, there are different preferences within the club, but what is clear is that Barça have a very tight salary margin and expensive deals are complicated.
