Manchester City star considered a priority target for Xavi’s Barcelona

In recent days, Manchester City has been making headlines over their interest in Lucas Paqueta and Jeremy Doku. In the midst of looking to add to their squad, Manchester City and Pep Guardiola still have to focus on an outgoing. As The Top Flight has covered, Barcelona is an admirer of City’s Joao Cancelo, who is likely to depart the club this summer as he loses his spot under Pep. Cancelo featured in pre-season for City but has not made the squad in their last two matches.

What was likely to advance Barcelona’s interest in Joao Cancelo was the departure of Ousmane Dembele to Paris Saint-Germain, which has now been confirmed. Xavi’s side now has some money to spend, and it looks like it will be on the Manchester City fullback.

Fabrizio Romano reports that a deal between City and Barcelona for Joao Cancelo is back in the works. Cancelo is described as a priority target for manager Xavi, and Barcelona will look to seal a transfer in the coming days.

Joao Cancelo’s days as a Manchester City regular are seemingly over. Midway through last season, the Portuguese defender took offense to Pep Guardiola wanting to bench him and swiftly looked for a loan away for the time being. It landed him at Bayern Munich, where he started a majority of the Bundesliga games he was eligible for. With City keeping Kyle Walker and Rico Lewis fully integrating himself into the senior squad, there is not much room for additional fullbacks, at least for ones who expect to be starters.

Barcelona are in need of a right-back which even Xavi has recently spoken about. Joao, who is able to play as both a right-back and left-back, will be available for a relatively modest price and can provide elite offensive attributes.