It's two years this month since Joao Cancelo made his last three starts for Manchester City.

He was hooked at half-time against Chelsea after one of the poorest 45 minutes of the season, played 90 in the league cup defeat to Southampton that Pep Guardiola would call the worst team display of his eight years at the club, and then played in the controversial derby defeat at Old Trafford on January 14, 2022. His relationship with Guardiola deteriorated to the point that it was decided that even a thin squad needed to offload a player who had previously been crucial to them.

Cancelo popped into heads with two Guardiola comments this week. The first was when the manager said that 'almost all of his players' were determined to return to their best levels; it may have been accidental yet it stirred memories of when the manager said that almost all of Nathan Ake's teammates were happy to see him do well in a match played days before Cancelo's departure.

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The second was related to the player's departure. After his loan to Bayern was completed a relative took to social media to label him the best right-back in the world and say that he didn't have to prove that to anybody any more.

That, in essence, was why he fell out of favour at City. Guardiola doesn't care if you have been the best in your position if you stop doing that; as grateful as he may be for what you have done, it cannot give you a free pass if standards slip.

That mantra has been tested more than ever this season as the manager has largely kept faith with the players who gave the team such success to get them out of it, but it was a pointed message to Jack Grealish after the West Ham game that he cannot just fall back on his form from the Treble season if he wants to get back in the City team.

"If the players believe what they've done in the past is enough, with me, they are wrong! Completely!" he said of the whole squad. "But I see every day in training, the kilometres they run, the way they play..."

No bombshell exits are planned at the Etihad this month, but anyone questioning why they still need to prove themselves only needs to look at Cancelo to see the dangers of that attitude. One of the best players at City in his day is now playing in Saudi Arabia having missed out on the Treble and a fourth consecutive Premier League title because he was convinced that he knew best.

The talent at City isn't in question, but nobody wants to see any of it wasted.