Pep Guardiola may get Joao Cancelo transfer answer in Man City vs Bayern Munich

Joao Cancelo was understandably taken aback when a Portugal reporter told him that he had a new Bayern Munich manager after helping his country beat Lichtenstein 4-0 during last month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers.

“Thanks to [Julian] Nagelsmann, he was the one who wanted me at Bayern. All the luck in the world to him,” he said in response. In truth, he may have been quietly relieved to see the back of the man under whom he’d started just three of seven Bundesliga games.

Perhaps he views Thomas Tuchel’s arrival as a reset and a restart. Under Nagelsmann, Cancelo had played right back, left back, right wing and left wing - probably not the kind of scenario he would have envisioned last season.

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The 28-year-old was the Premier League's best left-back last term and was named in the FifPro World XI in February as a nod to his efforts at Manchester City. But after being a key starter for the Blues, Cancelo was ousted by Nathan Ake and - argument or not - facilitated a move to Bayern.

But upon arrival at the Allianz Arena, the talent was instead being kept out of the team by two players on either defensive flank in Alphonso Davies and Benjamin Pavard. His loan had not been going his way and so he would have been hopeful that Tuchel would view things differently.

He may have been deflated when his new manager named him on the bench for a crunch match with Borussia Dortmund on his debut. The visitors were leading the Bundesliga by a point at that stage but Bayern’s 4-2 win saw them go back to the top of the tree.

Cancelo came on for the final 11 minutes but naturally questions about his inclusion under Tuchel were raised post-match. Bayern director Hasan