One Manchester City player has been named in a Team of the Season for 2023/24 following his latest loan spell.
Pep Guardiola will soon welcome back a number of players to the club, with decisions to then be made as to whether they will stick around, head out again, or even be sold.
Only a couple of experienced players left the club on loan last season, with the rest being young prospects. Kalvin Phillips was one, and his spell with West Ham United did not go to plan at all.
He endured a torrid time with the Hammers, and will now return to City who’ll struggle to get anywhere near the £45 million they paid.
One man who headed out at the start of the season was Joao Cancelo.
Although he came in for criticism at times when playing for Barcelona, he has had a good campaign overall, and has actually been named in WhoScored’s Team of the Season…
Joao Cancelo named in Team of the Season as Manchester City prepare to make transfer decision
Respected football statistics website have released their La Liga Team of the Season, and there is a spot for City’s loan man Cancelo at right-back.
The 30-year-old finished the campaign with an average match rating of 7.09, which is bettered by just six of the other 10 players.
On their website, WhoScored say of Cancelo: “Manchester City loanee Joao Cancelo ends the season as La Liga’s highest rated defender, having registered six goal involvements (2 goals, 4 assists) from full-back.
“The Portugal international, who was awarded the WhoScored Player of the Match on four occasions this term, also boasts the best success rate of any player to have attempted 75 or more dribbles (61.6%).”
In 2023/24, £250,000-a-week star Cancelo was heavily utilised by Barcelona manager Xavi, who handed him 42 appearances across all competitions.
Sadly, there was no place for Cancelo’s teammate and Manchester City legend Ilkay Gundogan.
Gundogan scored five goals and made nine assists in 36 La Liga appearances, and was regularly the standout player for Barca.
Cancelo wants to leave Manchester City
So Cancelo was the highest-rated defender in La Liga in 2023/24 according to WhoScored.
That is good to see, however, the star did also have some pretty poor outings at times and again came under fire for his defending.
After a 5-3 defeat to Villarreal, Cancelo actually slammed his own performance after being at fault for a couple of goals, describing himself as a ‘disaster’.
But certainly, in an attacking sense, Cancelo has impressed, and potentially it’s good news for City ahead of the summer.
Cancelo has no future back at the Etihad and will be moving on this summer – it just depends on what kind of basis. The player has previously opened the door to a permanent move to Barca, and the Spanish giants also want that to happen.
But their financial problems have been well documented, so it may not be a straightforward deal.