If Pep can just spend one more year in Cherki's ear and get him to remove the show-off element of his game we'll have a proper killer on our hands. He can show off in his celebrations - on the pitch, it's about doing the simple things incredibly well and incredibly consistently. Guehi even said in his interview that he "never knows" when the ball is gonna come if Cherki has it - that can't carry on forever if Cherki wants to reach his full potential.
The best creative players in the history of 21st century football are the ones who did exactly what everyone expected them to do, but still made it seem like a shock. Messi, Kaka, Robben, Figo, Zidane, and in our legendary City teams De Bruyne and David Silva - they all had their signature moves, defenders knew what they were going to do, but still no fucker could prevent it. It's not about unpredictability, it's about making the predictable unstoppable.
That's what Pep was on about earlier in the season when he tried to calm Cherki down after the rabona flick for Foden against Sunderland. Today at Chelsea is the measure of Cherki's talent and he didn't need anything like that. His assist for O'Reilly was perfect, nothing flashy but perfectly measured; his assist for Guehi showed great style and determination and then he found that little reverse ball. He's been listening to the master and it's showing.
Cherki strikes me as the kinda guy who's been the best player at every level of the game since he was about 6 years old. He's got god-given talent and skills and he bloody well knows it. In the eyes of his coaches and his managers, he'll have been unable to do wrong. As a teenager he's won games on his own, doing little flicks and tricks, playing Joga Bonito-style football, using both feet, knowing that he has enough talent to win without properly grafting.
That's got to stop and I think he already knows it. The silly poses on the touchline when he's injured, trying to flip that bottle at Stamford Bridge, the laughing and joking, all that is fine. But the keepy-uppies against Arsenal when there were still 25 mins on the clock, the 1 in 100 rabona flick? Nope. You could see Pep wasn't happy either incident. It's fine to tolerate that side of Cherki for now but he's got to get serious as he goes deeper into his 20s.
Think about them players I mentioned up top. Messi, Kaka, Robben, Figo, Zidane, De Bruyne, David Silva. Did they ever gloat and show off during games? No. They got their heads down, switched on, and made history. Pep's only (seemingly) so harsh with Cherki because he knows that's his potential level. He has Ballon d'Or potential and Pep, having groomed two Balon d'Or winners now, knows exactly what it takes to channel your talent correctly.
Ask yourself, across the last 15 years, who were the characters at City and who were the leaders? We've had all sorts of talented players come through our doors but a lot of them are remembered differently. That mentality, to just do the fucking job in front of you, over and over for years on end, is what separates De Bruyne from Nasri, Aguero from Balotelli, Gundogan from (much as I liked him) Grealish.
Cherki has a choice - he has the talent to be the very best, and Pep knows it.
