Beyond the mostly beautiful football, one further thing I have loved about the Pep era is the uncompromising approach to how players are expected to behave and what characteristics they are expected to display.
That modern footballers earn obscene amounts of money is just a reality that we accept these days (and yes I know they are not the only ones). As a result I've always thought that the minimum expectation for this is absolute and total professionalism in doing a job most of us would kill to do. However the examples of players taking the piss and taking the money whilst looking out exclusively for themselves, acting as primma donnas and disrespecting their clubs, colleagues and most importantly the fans, are legion. We've had a few ourselves over the years. But in the Pep era we have enforced a code that, irrespective of who you are, you work and run for the team, you play whatever part is necessary for the team, you do the right thing by your teammates whether it suits or not, you play the style that the manager has developed and the club wishes to implement. Though there is always some elasticity in this, fundamentally it is the culture of the club and players need to adhere to it. In doing all these things for the manager and the team, you indirectly show respect to the broader club and by implication to the fans too. You may still be a multi millionaire but you are showing you have a degree of humility and are willing to be part of something bigger than your own ego.
Some people may see this all simply as excessive control freakery on Pep's part but I like the ethos and hope we can retain it beyond Pep.
So, if Cancelo has done even half of the things that are being claimed then, irrespective of how good he is when on form, good riddance to him. He's just one (of numerous) adverts for some of the things wrong with the game.
