Pep Guardiola says Manchester City took just three minutes to decide whether or not to replace Joao Cancelo.
The Blues took a bold decision to allow one of their key players from previous years to leave in the January window, with Cancelo sealing a loan move to Bayern Munich on the final day of the window. And the club showed a similar character not to replace their outgoing star, opting instead to make do with the squad options they have got.
Guardiola confirmed on Friday that there had been a discussion around signing a new player and that the club could have spent a lot of money to bring in a replacement. But, with nothing lined up, the manager quickly concluded that he would do without for the rest of the season.
Also read: Every word from Guardiola press conference
"We talked about it but the discussion took three minutes," said Guardiola. "I asked Txiki [Begiristain, sporting director] if there were any perspectives and he said that there weren't so they would need to take a look. So I said to wait.
"We could have gone into the market and paid a huge amount of money for one left-back but we prefer these four months to do it without a new signing. For next season, we will see in summer."
City will have a decision to make at the end of the season. Cancelo will still have four years remaining on his City contract when he returns from Bayern in the summer, although the German club can buy him for £61.6million at that time and it would surprise many to see the Portugal international back at the Etihad.
READ NEXT:
