10 | Rayan Cherki - 2025/26

Lots of people saying he's got an arrogance about him but I don't see that. Confidence yes, arrogance no. Maybe the kick ups against Arsenal but in that game they were playing like a Pulis Stoke team and deserved calling out for it. Expressing exceptional talent isn't arrogance, it's just talent.

Cherki was deliberately demonstrating he / City were in command at that point. He was demonstrating dominance. I wouldn't characterise that as arrogant, it was mind games, but some might.it's fine by me so long as it does not come back and bite him / us on the bum on Sunday.
 
Cherki was deliberately demonstrating he / City were in command at that point. He was demonstrating dominance. I wouldn't characterise that as arrogant, it was mind games, but some might.it's fine by me so long as it does not come back and bite him / us on the bum on Sunday.

They are going to be snide fuckers with him this weekend, hopefully the ref has his specs on.
 
That does not change what Pep was seeing in training etc in respect of Cherki. Also, for instance, Foden had a purple patch; can't recall how available Cherki was at that point but it may have been a factor as fitting both in the starting line-up is not our best option it seems.

I think he didn't play as much earlier in the season because we were carrying him defensively a little. This is quite good showing how he's doing things differently now when out of possession. That's his biggest change in the last few months.

 
Troy Deeneys thoughts on our midfielder :

Rayan Cherki (Manchester City): My favourite player in the Premier League. I am glad people are starting to see just how good a football player this guy is. Honestly, he is like Toy 'R' Us for adults - you get excited every time he is playing. Wonderful to watch, not only did he dominate the second half but he plays with a flair of 'just pass me the ball and watch what I do'. His pass to Marc Guehi for the second goal, everyone is looking on the outside and he just does a little pass with the outside of the left foot. It's simple when you're talking about it, but to do it at that speed... He is honestly one of the best players in world football.

Praise indeed.
 
French media attacking him again, I genuinely don't understand why they do it.
He's criticized by the same people as always: former players who had poor careers, whether with their clubs or the national team, like Christophe Dugarry or Jérôme Rothen. Rothen has a daily show from 6 PM to 8 PM, a show based on negative criticism, designed to generate buzz and get people talking, with an editorial line similar to the Spanish show "El Chiringuito"—shows with shocking opinions, using Trump-style populism to boost views and ratings.

Add to that the fact that in France, culturally, we struggle with rich, famous people who are talented and show it. Mbappé is criticized morning, noon, and night, just as Thierry Henry was in the past, and so many others.
 
He's criticized by the same people as always: former players who had poor careers, whether with their clubs or the national team, like Christophe Dugarry or Jérôme Rothen. Rothen has a daily show from 6 PM to 8 PM, a show based on negative criticism, designed to generate buzz and get people talking, with an editorial line similar to the Spanish show "El Chiringuito"—shows with shocking opinions, using Trump-style populism to boost views and ratings.

Add to that the fact that in France, culturally, we struggle with rich, famous people who are talented and show it. Mbappé is criticized morning, noon, and night, just as Thierry Henry was in the past, and so many others.
Usually rich, famous people with non French heritage too. Same goes here to be fair as we saw with Raheem Sterling
 
He's criticized by the same people as always: former players who had poor careers, whether with their clubs or the national team, like Christophe Dugarry or Jérôme Rothen. Rothen has a daily show from 6 PM to 8 PM, a show based on negative criticism, designed to generate buzz and get people talking, with an editorial line similar to the Spanish show "El Chiringuito"—shows with shocking opinions, using Trump-style populism to boost views and ratings.

Add to that the fact that in France, culturally, we struggle with rich, famous people who are talented and show it. Mbappé is criticized morning, noon, and night, just as Thierry Henry was in the past, and so many others.

There is no need to invent facts to defend Cherki from (silly) criticisms. Dugarry won the WC with France, scored 2 WC goals, and had over 50 apps in one of the best periods of their national team. Wasn't a great player but had a good career overall.

France have 3 certain starters in attacking positions: Mbappe, Olise and Dembele. Cherki can make the starting XI at 10. But Olise can play a hybrid 7/10 role. Won't be easy for Cherki to establish himself as a starter. Doue and Barcola are options too.
 
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There is no need to invent facts to defend Cherki from (silly) criticisms. Dugarry won the WC with France, scored 2 WC goals, and had over 50 apps in one of the best periods of their national team. Wasn't a great player but had a good career overall.

France have 3 certain starters in attacking positions: Mbappe, Olise and Dembele. Cherki can make the starting XI at 10. But Olise can play a hybrid 7/10 role. Won't be easy for Cherki to establish himself as a starter. Doue and Barcola are options too.
I didn't invent anything, I know quite a bit about the history of my national team and the careers of our players.

I followed Christophe Dugarry, first as a player, then as a commentator on Canal+, and later on RMC radio, both as a pundit/host when he had his own show, "Team Duga," and now as a regular pundit appearing twice a week from Marrakech on the show "Rothen s'enflamme." And of course, I listened to his opinion on Cherki this past Monday at 7 PM.

Even as a player, he was nicknamed "Dugachis" here in France, meaning "a real waste," because of the missed opportunities he had as a striker; he needed ten chances to convert one.

Nobody understood why he was selected for all the French national team training camps, to the point that some say he owes it to Zidane, his best friend. He himself admits to having been average with the French national team.

No player in the history of the French national team has been booed so much across the country (there's even an article in the newspaper L'Equipe on this subject where he's ranked number 1) because he was so hated and criticized, and people didn't understand what he was doing in the national team given his poor technical ability and unremarkable stats.

He scored only one goal in the 1998 World Cup, not two. It was in the opening match against South Africa (I was there that day at the Stade Vélodrome). It was his only goal in his only start of the tournament, and then Aimé Jacquet preferred Stéphane Guivarc'h for the rest of the competition.

Kalvin Phillips also has a Champions League and two Premier League titles to his name, but I don't think anyone in England would say he had a generally successful career.

Dugarry was a failure at Birmingham
a failure at Barcelona where he barely played before being sold after a few months
a failure at AC Milan
a failure at Marseille, and decent at his boyhood club, Bordeaux.
He played in France, for two different clubs, in Spain, in Italy, and in England, and he never managed to score 10 league goals in a single season.
Over 15 years of professional career and not even 100 goals in total for club and country (including friendlies)
If that's what you consider success for a striker, a number 9 who plays in the same position as Haaland, then we have completely different definitions of success!

In short, I stand by my statement: Dugarry was a player with a mediocre career, both statistically and in terms of performance, at club and international level. And he's a detestable media personality with ridiculous opinions on football, like when he talked about Ancelotti, the PSG coach, saying "he doesn't understand what he's doing." Later, Ancelotti went to Real Madrid and won two Champions League titles. Or when he called Luis Enrique a "humiliating ego" and demanded he be fired, then a few months later he had a historic season at PSG, winning the club's first Champions League title. Not to mention his opinions, which sometimes border on disrespect, like the time he called Marcelo Bielsa, the Marseille coach at the time, an "autistic."

This isn't the first time he's criticized Cherki. He's been tearing him apart ever since he arrived here in Lyon. Just two weeks ago, during the international break, he went on a rampage simply because, in the post-match interview, Cherki said his teammates shouldn't worry and that he'd make the perfect pass wherever they needed it. So he was called pretentious and arrogant. Who does he think he is?

I don't need to defend Cherki. His talent speaks for itself. He's known pressure and criticism since he was 16, but nothing gets to him. Everything rolls off him thanks to his strong personality, and that's why he turned down PSG and chose Dortmund's offer. He wanted to leave that environment and France for those reasons, the same reasons that have affected Mbappé, Benzema, Nasri, Ribery, and so many others in the past.

No one is talking about a starting place in the French team at the moment, he has barely joined the selection, he has not even been with the group for a year with only 5 selections, there is already an established hierarchy with players ahead of him, but he will be in the near future, with the appointment of Zidane after the World Cup.


So, make sure you're at least a little informed before you start judging my intentions and accusing me of fabricating facts to defend Cherki or anyone else.

PS: Sorry if I went off-topic a bit, but I had to set the record straight and answer the question asked a few messages earlier regarding the criticism of Cherki in France: by whom and why...
 
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I didn't invent anything, I know quite a bit about the history of my national team and the careers of our players.

I followed Christophe Dugarry, first as a player, then as a commentator on Canal+, and later on RMC radio, both as a pundit/host when he had his own show, "Team Duga," and now as a regular pundit appearing twice a week from Marrakech on the show "Rothen s'enflamme." And of course, I listened to his opinion on Cherki this past Monday at 7 PM.

Even as a player, he was nicknamed "Dugachis" here in France, meaning "a real waste," because of the missed opportunities he had as a striker; he needed ten chances to convert one.

Nobody understood why he was selected for all the French national team training camps, to the point that some say he owes it to Zidane, his best friend. He himself admits to having been average with the French national team.

No player in the history of the French national team has been booed so much across the country (there's even an article in the newspaper L'Equipe on this subject where he's ranked number 1) because he was so hated and criticized, and people didn't understand what he was doing in the national team given his poor technical ability and unremarkable stats.

He scored only one goal in the 1998 World Cup, not two. It was in the opening match against South Africa (I was there that day at the Stade Vélodrome). It was his only goal in his only start of the tournament, and then Aimé Jacquet preferred Stéphane Guivarc'h for the rest of the competition.

Kalvin Phillips also has a Champions League and two Premier League titles to his name, but I don't think anyone in England would say he had a generally successful career.

Dugarry was a failure at Birmingham
a failure at Barcelona where he barely played before being sold after a few months
a failure at AC Milan
a failure at Marseille, and decent at his boyhood club, Bordeaux.
He played in France, for two different clubs, in Spain, in Italy, and in England, and he never managed to score 10 league goals in a single season.
Over 15 years of professional career and not even 100 goals in total for club and country (including friendlies)
If that's what you consider success for a striker, a number 9 who plays in the same position as Haaland, then we have completely different definitions of success!

In short, I stand by my statement: Dugarry was a player with a mediocre career, both statistically and in terms of performance, at club and international level. And he's a detestable media personality with ridiculous opinions on football, like when he talked about Ancelotti, the PSG coach, saying "he doesn't understand what he's doing." Later, Ancelotti went to Real Madrid and won two Champions League titles. Or when he called Luis Enrique a "humiliating ego" and demanded he be fired, then a few months later he had a historic season at PSG, winning the club's first Champions League title. Not to mention his opinions, which sometimes border on disrespect, like the time he called Marcelo Bielsa, the Marseille coach at the time, an "autistic."

This isn't the first time he's criticized Cherki. He's been tearing him apart ever since he arrived here in Lyon. Just two weeks ago, during the international break, he went on a rampage simply because, in the post-match interview, Cherki said his teammates shouldn't worry and that he'd make the perfect pass wherever they needed it. So he was called pretentious and arrogant. Who does he think he is?

I don't need to defend Cherki. His talent speaks for itself. He's known pressure and criticism since he was 16, but nothing gets to him. Everything rolls off him thanks to his strong personality, and that's why he turned down PSG and chose Dortmund's offer. He wanted to leave that environment and France for those reasons, the same reasons that have affected Mbappé, Benzema, Nasri, Ribery, and so many others in the past.

No one is talking about a starting place in the French team at the moment, he has barely joined the selection, he has not even been with the group for a year with only 5 selections, there is already an established hierarchy with players ahead of him, but he will be in the near future, with the appointment of Zidane after the World Cup.


So, make sure you're at least a little informed before you start judging my intentions and accusing me of fabricating facts to defend Cherki or anyone else.

PS: Sorry if I went off-topic a bit, but I had to set the record straight and answer the question asked a few messages earlier regarding the criticism of Cherki in France: by whom and why...

Thanks for the essay, but it shows Dugarry wasn't a great player, exactly what I said in my post. I didn't try to make the case that he was a great or top player, only that his career wasn't poor (unless you compare him to top players). That he was signed by Barca and Milan shows he wasn't considered poor.

Please don't write an essay on the meaning of 'poor' now :)

That's just banter, Sam69. I like your posts. And I completely trust you about Dugarry's comments on football matters. That's why I indicated that his criticisms were silly.
 
I didn't invent anything, I know quite a bit about the history of my national team and the careers of our players.

I followed Christophe Dugarry, first as a player, then as a commentator on Canal+, and later on RMC radio, both as a pundit/host when he had his own show, "Team Duga," and now as a regular pundit appearing twice a week from Marrakech on the show "Rothen s'enflamme." And of course, I listened to his opinion on Cherki this past Monday at 7 PM.

Even as a player, he was nicknamed "Dugachis" here in France, meaning "a real waste," because of the missed opportunities he had as a striker; he needed ten chances to convert one.

Nobody understood why he was selected for all the French national team training camps, to the point that some say he owes it to Zidane, his best friend. He himself admits to having been average with the French national team.

No player in the history of the French national team has been booed so much across the country (there's even an article in the newspaper L'Equipe on this subject where he's ranked number 1) because he was so hated and criticized, and people didn't understand what he was doing in the national team given his poor technical ability and unremarkable stats.

He scored only one goal in the 1998 World Cup, not two. It was in the opening match against South Africa (I was there that day at the Stade Vélodrome). It was his only goal in his only start of the tournament, and then Aimé Jacquet preferred Stéphane Guivarc'h for the rest of the competition.

Kalvin Phillips also has a Champions League and two Premier League titles to his name, but I don't think anyone in England would say he had a generally successful career.

Dugarry was a failure at Birmingham
a failure at Barcelona where he barely played before being sold after a few months
a failure at AC Milan
a failure at Marseille, and decent at his boyhood club, Bordeaux.
He played in France, for two different clubs, in Spain, in Italy, and in England, and he never managed to score 10 league goals in a single season.
Over 15 years of professional career and not even 100 goals in total for club and country (including friendlies)
If that's what you consider success for a striker, a number 9 who plays in the same position as Haaland, then we have completely different definitions of success!

In short, I stand by my statement: Dugarry was a player with a mediocre career, both statistically and in terms of performance, at club and international level. And he's a detestable media personality with ridiculous opinions on football, like when he talked about Ancelotti, the PSG coach, saying "he doesn't understand what he's doing." Later, Ancelotti went to Real Madrid and won two Champions League titles. Or when he called Luis Enrique a "humiliating ego" and demanded he be fired, then a few months later he had a historic season at PSG, winning the club's first Champions League title. Not to mention his opinions, which sometimes border on disrespect, like the time he called Marcelo Bielsa, the Marseille coach at the time, an "autistic."

This isn't the first time he's criticized Cherki. He's been tearing him apart ever since he arrived here in Lyon. Just two weeks ago, during the international break, he went on a rampage simply because, in the post-match interview, Cherki said his teammates shouldn't worry and that he'd make the perfect pass wherever they needed it. So he was called pretentious and arrogant. Who does he think he is?

I don't need to defend Cherki. His talent speaks for itself. He's known pressure and criticism since he was 16, but nothing gets to him. Everything rolls off him thanks to his strong personality, and that's why he turned down PSG and chose Dortmund's offer. He wanted to leave that environment and France for those reasons, the same reasons that have affected Mbappé, Benzema, Nasri, Ribery, and so many others in the past.

No one is talking about a starting place in the French team at the moment, he has barely joined the selection, he has not even been with the group for a year with only 5 selections, there is already an established hierarchy with players ahead of him, but he will be in the near future, with the appointment of Zidane after the World Cup.


So, make sure you're at least a little informed before you start judging my intentions and accusing me of fabricating facts to defend Cherki or anyone else.

PS: Sorry if I went off-topic a bit, but I had to set the record straight and answer the question asked a few messages earlier regarding the criticism of Cherki in France: by whom and why...
When Cherki wins the World Cup for France they will all eat their words.
 

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