Rayan Cherki to Man City is Pep Guardiola’s latest crime against football

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 6 Jun 2025 12:16 BST
• 5 min read

Analysis

Rayan Cherki’s international debut was one to remember.

He may not have been able to drag France from the pit of despair as a makeshift defence was dismantled by Lamine Yamal’s rampaging Spain, but he came off the bench to go toe-to-toe with the Barcelona starlet and give Les Bleus a sense of respectability that they previously lacked.

The end result was a 5-4 defeat but in 27 minutes, Cherki had scored brilliantly, set up another and was the catalyst to a third. On top of this, an outrageous defence-splitting pass fashioned a chance that Ousmane Dembele, Lamine’s main contender in the Ballon d’Or race, sent against the post.

Current ETV

Rayan Cherki

M (CR)

Lyon

Rayan Cherki

M (CR)

Lyon

€39.5M

ETV Range

€35.5M - €43.4M

View full profile

It was a thrilling display of showmanship from the 21-year-old Lyon star.

His next stop is Manchester City, where Pep Guardiola will take him under his wing.

The Pep of old would have embraced the freewheeling nature of Cherki within a tiki-taka framework, but instead the Etihad club have had a habit of blunting thrilling flair players in recent years.

Jack Grealish was never able to recapture his Aston Villa form at the Etihad and is set to be sent back to Birmingham this summer while Jeremy Doku, a more mercurial talent, admittedly, has similarly struggled for consistency after a bright start that suggested more.

Cherki needs to be let off the leash

City are set to pay over €30 million to sign Cherki, according to Fabrizio Romano, yet the price football will pay is set to be a whole lot higher should another gifted maverick be turned into one of drones that Guardiola’s Man City have specialised in producing over the past couple of years.

It used to be that watching a Guardiola side was something thrilling. The intricate passing and movement of Barcelona at their best came close to art, yet watching City is now more often a grind. Gone are the artists and in have come the artisans as Pep has elected to forego at least some element of technical mastery in favour of bulk.

Cherki does not follow this pattern, however. He’s not Messi, but as a left-sided creative attacker, there are some parallels to be drawn.

The Frenchman, though, thrives on freedom, which is something that Guardiola has been reticent to give his players in recent seasons.

Data analytics firm SciSports is sceptical that a deal will work. Most notably, it offers just one star for playing style, a stark warning to Cherki that he could be walking into an unwelcome straightjacket under his new boss. Overall, City earn a Club Fit score of just 53.

Instead, he should consider PSG, who wanted him last summer. Luis Enrique’s freewheeling team is what a Guardiola outfit should look like, with exciting players given the ability to express themselves offensively within a solid team framework. With a Club Fit score of 79, only AC Milan’s 80 offers a better mark.

Should Cherki complete his move to Man City, football will be in grave danger of losing one of its brightest and most entertaining talents. That in itself should be enough to file charge No.116 against the Premier League club.

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