Arsenal are keen on a move for Manchester City loaner Joao Cancelo, though there are doubts over whether Pep Guardiola would sanction his sale to a direct rival given their previous history, according to journalist Dean Jones.
What's the latest transfer news involving Joao Cancelo?
As per Sky Sports, both Cancelo and his teammate Sadio Mane are said to not be part of Bayern Munich's long-term plans and will depart the German giants in the summer as Thomas Tuchel eyes a squad rebuild.
Of course, Portugal international Cancelo is on loan at Bayern Munich, having joined from Manchester City in February in a deal that includes a buy option of £61 million.
According to The Mirror, Cancelo doesn't have a future under Guardiola at the Etihad and will be moved on in the forthcoming transfer window and they instead want to try and move him and his £130,000 per week pay packet off the books.
90min claim that Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are interested in signing him permanently in the off-season, though it remains to be seen where his long-term future will lie.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, journalist Jones thinks that Cancelo would raise the standards in the building at the Emirates if he was to joining Arsenal.
Jones said: "But at some point, we get to the stage of asking, are Man City going to keep providing talent for Arsenal to put title challenges together?
"The message out of City is always that they don't show fear when it comes to selling players, and that they don't stand in the way of players that want to leave. But given the helping hand that they've given Arsenal to be their main title competitors, by selling Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, there's got to be a point at which you consider, do you really want to do that again?
"The problem they’ve got is, there aren't that many clubs that would pay what they're going to want for Cancelo and you're only really going to get that within the Premier League.
"There aren't many teams that actually need that type of player, so you'd probably rather he goes abroad. There’s a bit of a conundrum there, but I think if Arsenal could get Cancelo, he would be starting every single week and I think that again, just raises the levels of that team.”
What have Joao Cancelo's stats been like at Bayern Munich?
Since joining Bayern Munich mid-season, Cancelo has proved to be a useful presence at full-back as they endeavour to win their 11th successive Bundesliga title.
In his time at the Allianz Arena, the 28-year-old has made 19 appearances in all competitions, registering one goal and six assists, as per Transfermarkt.
Despite most of his teammates in Bavaria having a head start on him, WhoScored shows that Cancelo has become Bayern Munich's third-most consistent performer this term, earning a rating of 7.31/10 for his efforts on the pitch.
As per FBRef, the Portugal international has also faired well in comparison to his positional peers across Europe's top five divisions for progressive passes in the last 365 days, completing an average of 6.91 per 90 minutes, putting him in the fourth percentile for full-backs in this metric.
Though there will be doubts over Manchester City's willingness to sell Cancelo to Arsenal, the Gunners definitely have the right idea in scoping out the possibility of a deal.