After making a bright start to his loan spell at Bayern Munich, Joao Cancelo has found his starting opportunities starting to dwindle. In recent weeks, there has been a preference to start either Josip Stanisic or Benjamin Pavard over the Portuguese defender on loan from Manchester City, and he’s now got to adjust to life under Thomas Tuchel since Julian Nagelsmann was sacked just under two weeks ago.
At this point, Cancelo has only started 4 of Bayern’s last 7 matches across all competitions, and was tactically subbed out in both the 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen and the 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain after only 45 minutes. Before Nagelsmann was dismissed from the club, he had made his frustrations clear to the manager, especially after he didn’t start in the second leg against PSG in the Champions League.
It remains to be seen whether or not Cancelo’s fortunes will change much under Tuchel, but per information from kicker’s Georg Holzner and Frank Linkesch, it’s looking increasingly likely that there will be no permanent purchase of Cancelo by Bayern this summer (via @iMiaSanMia). Bayern’s coaching staff and front office are reportedly well aware of how easily the player’s mood is affected by his playing time, or lack thereof, and that he’s prone to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. They’re still more than well aware of his quality, but with the way things are going, a buy option is “not in sight,” even if Bayern were able to get a significantly reduced fee for him.
When the loan deal was agreed with Manchester City, it was understood via the buy option that Cancelo would cost upwards of 70-million euros. He had a supposed falling out with Pep Guardiola and all the writing was on the wall for him not getting a lot of time at City, which is something he felt he could change at Bayern. At the time, 70-million might’ve felt like a reasonable price, but for an out-of-favor player, Bayern aren’t wrong to not really be interested in pulling the permanent trigger on him for that steep of a fee this summer.