31 May 2025 10:47:50
Rayan Cherki linked to an imminent move to city. We really do suck at transfers, he’s going to be around £33m. We should have had this Bruno saga wrapped up ages ago, if he goes, Cherki was an ideal replacement.
You just know we are going to wait until we have sold and buy expensive older crap players late in the window.
I didn’t like the idea of Delap as the starting 9, £35m for a Prem experienced striker is great value these days though.
For a club apparently run like a business we suck at getting value. Liverpool, City etc getting their business done quickly taking value, we dither and will get our pants pulled down AGAIN!
31 May 2025 12:06:48
Firstly, if City were in for him then he'd have been aware of that and he would have likely waited if we made an earlier attempt.
The reality is that we finished 15th, have no European football next year and are just embarking on a project that the CEO has said will be three years long at least.
That doesn't make us the most appetising of prospects for young talented players who will likely have their choice of half a dozen possible clubs this summer.
Cherki is a young, highly talented player who looks to be coming good on his potential. Who also happens to be available for a reasonable price due to Lyon needing money.
That said he does have some potential drawbacks. He can be a little lazy in his pressing and defensive off the ball work. He also isn't particularly quick, far from slow but he does lack that burst of pace that is often needed in the EPL. Finally there have also been a couple of well publicised incidents with him over the past few years that suggest his attitude might not be exemplary. That could just be him being young and needing to grow up a bit, or it could be a potential issue.
In some ways he reminds me a little of Sancho, hugely talented, slightly lazy, lacking a burst of pace, and rumours of a possible attitude problem.
That doesn't mean I expect him to flop like Sancho, just that there are more than a few similarities that would make me hesitant about signing him.
He also by all accounts wasn't City's first choice, they've been turned down by Wirtz, and priced out for Gibbs-White before moving for Cherki.
Personally I'd take Mbeumo over Cherki all day long even at twice the price.
31 May 2025 12:14:05
TBF, he would pick city over us everyday of the week and why wouldn’t he
Plus also perhaps RA not interested in him anyway
United might want a player but he might not want us, like Delap
We have to accept we are not a big draw for players now, especially if we cutting back on salaries too.
31 May 2025 13:21:31
Cherki comes with baggage / risk even if we were an appealing option he’s not what our squad needs right now.
31 May 2025 15:56:45
Rewz
We are a club run like a business and we were before SJR's involvement, but the differences between the business strategies and competencies are:
A. Why we are where we are,
and
B. Why we're doing what we're doing.
Where, before, we had suits like Woodward making a mess of things, we now have people in place with greater knowledge of the factors relevant to running a sport-centric business.
City run their business model as well as they do because they have had, for a sustained period, a committee of suits who know the business environment relevant to their roles.
Because of the period that led up to SJR's involvement, rightly or wrongly, there has been profound change throughout the club that has seen a sense of instability pervade the structure, which makes it additionally difficult to convince ambitious young players that the project will settle and become successful.
If City are interested in Cherki, we've no hope of challenging, simply because of where we are and what we're doing.