‘Ideally’: Arsenal do want to sign ‘incredible’ £60m player, but they’re not his first choice – journalist

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Arsenal transfer target Joao Cancelo would ideally like to sign for Bayern Munich this summer, with the defender thought to have little chance of returning to the fold at Manchester City.

That is according to journalist Ben Jacobs, who was writing in his Caught Offside column this week, in which he outlined the problems Arsenal will face trying to sign the Portuguese.

It took many by surprise when Manchester City gave Joao Cancelo the green light to leave in the January transfer window. He had previously established himself as one of the best full-backs in the world; almost redefining the role in recent years.

However, he was unhappy with his game-time at the Etihad Stadium. And with that, he joined Bayern for the rest of the season.

As Jacobs notes, the Bavarian giants have the option to sign Cancelo permanently for £61 million. However, he claimed that Thomas Tuchel’s side have little intention of triggering that clause.

Arsenal target Cancelo ideally wants to join Bayern Munich

He also suggested that Arsenal have a genuine interest in landing the ‘incredible‘ Cancelo. However, they do face an uphill battle with Manchester City reluctant to let him head to the Emirates – and Cancelo hoping to move elsewhere.

“I don’t see a way back at Manchester City, at least not in the long term, especially with Cancelo wanting to start games. He ideally wants to stay at Bayern, but Thomas Tuchel may have other ideas, which is what puts Cancelo in quite a tricky position,” he told Caught Offside.

“The links with Arsenal are genuine and there’s no doubt Edu and Mikel Arteta will look for defensive reinforcements. But it will be a complicated transfer to pull off. Manchester City won’t be as forthcoming selling to Arsenal given how close they ran the recently-crowned champions this season. The transfers of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko show the clubs can do business, but the dynamic between them is a little different now heading into 2023/24.”

Obviously, Bayern not wanting to triggering the option is encouraging news for Arsenal. And there have been surprise reports from Football Transfers claiming that Arsenal and Manchester City are in talks over a swap involving Cancelo and Kieran Tierney.

Pep Guardiola has reportedly made it clear Cancelo will not be in his squad next term. So he presumably has to go somewhere.

His preference is Bayern. But if the Bundesliga side are not ready to pay the money, Arsenal must surely come into the equation.