Man City stance on Joao Cancelo vindicates brutal yet bright Pep Guardiola call amid Chelsea chaos

There was a new story that emerged last week about Raheem Sterling during his time at Manchester City.

A furious row with Pep Guardiola in the manager's office over not being selected was eye-opening, but not for reasons that might be jumped to. This wasn't a case of Zlatan Ibrahimovic or even Joao Cancelo where arguments with Guardiola have swiftly ended the relationship; Sterling started the Champions League final months later for City and helped them to another two Premier League titles before leaving after seven years at the club for just £1.5m less than he had been signed for.

City have moved on in the two years without Sterling, while a player who was the flagship signing under the new Chelsea owners for manager Thomas Tuchel has struggled to find rhythm in a basketcase of a club. Despite being one of the more impressive stars in the friendly against City a few weeks ago under his sixth different manager at Stamford Bridge, Sterling's only headlines from Sunday came from his representatives publicly asking for clarity on his future after he was left out of the squad entirely.

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Sterling's successor in the No.7 shirt at City, Cancelo, wasn't in the squad at Stamford Bridge either, just like he wasn't for the Community Shield at Wembley. That caused far less of a stir because, to borrow a Guardiola phrase, players 'know the situation'.

Cancelo hasn't been a part of City's plans since his fallout with the manager was so big that he was immediately bombed out of the squad to leave a team going for the Treble reliant on an