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Barcelona ‘set to investigate’ various aspects of Joao Cancelo before potentially making a move for the Manchester City many in the summer.

That’s according to Sport, who say the Portuguese defender has passed ‘the first filter’ in terms of what the Catalan giants are looking for.

They explain that Barcelona are aware they need to sign a right-back for next season and Cancelo has already been approved by manager Xavi and his team.

He is therefore a name on the table ahead of the summer, with both the board and technical team ‘looking favourably’ on a possible move.

They’re even more keen as they believe Manchester City would be willing to loan him out again next season after his loan spell at Bayern Munich this year. The German champions have no intention of making that deal a permanent one.

Cancelo will therefore need to ‘look for a way out’ of the Etihad in the summer and Barcelona are more than willing to offer it to him.

They value the fact they don’t need to make a ‘great economic outlay’ to get him, as they only need to negotiate a loan fee with Manchester City, and that he is top-level player who would solve their right-back issue.

They first, though, want to investigate the situation around the player as he is ‘going through a difficult time’ in his life.

Barcelona want to delve deeper into the reasons he was sent packing by Manchester City and the issues that have arose during his time at Bayern Munich so far.

The exit from Manchester happened after a falling out with Pep Guardiola, who told those in charge to look for a way out for the Portuguese defender ‘because of his behaviour’.  

Barcelona seemingly want to know more about that before they commit to signing him, but they are keen if he is available on loan once again in the summer.