Manchester City’s João Cancelo spent the second half of the last season on loan at Bayern Munich before he was allowed to join Barcelona on a season-long loan deal on deadline day.
Earlier this year, the right-back had a fallout with Pep Guardiola at the Etihad. Latest claims from Spain stated the manager was not pleased with the 29-year-old’s behaviour and asked the club to get rid of him.
Barca will face FC Porto in the Champions League on Thursday, and former Sporting and Swansea City manager Carlos Carvalhal had a chat with Sport to preview the tie, where he also talked about the Manchester City owned player.
The Portugal international has two goals and an assist from six games for the La Liga side this season.
When the newspaper told Carvalhal that his compatriot is ‘proving to be a great finisher’ for the Blaugrana, he said Xavi Hernández will benefit from the work done by Guardiola to improve Cancelo at Manchester City.
“It’s Pep Guardiola’s fault. He’s [Cancelo] one of the best right backs in the world, a great winger, but he has done a master’s degree with Pep at City,” he said.
“Now he has the ability to react, shoot, unmark, knows how to make the last pass… Xavi will also know how to take advantage of the best that the player has, who will take advantage of all his potential at Barcelona.”
Barcelona don’t have an option or obligation to make Cancelo’s stay permanent but recent claims have indicated they are planing to buy him from Manchester City next summer.