You might have heard this once or twice, but Tottenham Hotspur need reinforcements in the summer transfer window, with a particular need for creative midfielders. Well, the season hasn’t ended yet, but Spurs are apparently working towards addressing that particular need. According to a paywalled report in Le Parisien (via SportWitness and Get French Football News), Tottenham are one of three Premier League clubs that have “initiated contact” with Lyon for the services of Rayan Cherki.
Cherki is a name whose career we at Carty Free Towers have been following with great interest [insert Emperor Palpatine meme here] for a couple of years now, to the point where in our chat we’ve been collectively trying to materialize Tottenham’s interest in him. Seems to be working now, go manifestation!
Only 21, Cherki’s stats absolutely fly off the page: 12g+19a for Lyon this season in all competitions, mostly playing as an advanced or wide midfielder with over 6 shot creating actions/90 and 0.88 goal creating actions/90. He leads Ligue 1 in xAG/90 this season — the dude can flat-out pass.
It makes you wonder why he hasn’t already landed at some mega-club. Wellllllll about that, there are some backrounded reports that Cherki can be a little, let’s say “difficult” to deal with — Lyon owner John Textor was caught referring to Cherki as a “little a—hole” on a leaked WhatsApp chat with another club executive, probably due to what happened in the transfer window last summer.
To summarize briefly, Cherki was close to a move to PSG last summer but he apparently rejected them for a move to Dortmund. Only trouble was that Lyon hadn’t agreed a transfer fee with Dortmund and never would. The entire process apparently enraged PSG enough that they’re not renewing their interest in Cherki.
So yeah, you don’t have to look very far to find some suggestions that Cherki is a bit of a s—hthead. However, he’s only 21 years old and has been extremely highly rated since the age of 15. That’s not to excuse any past behavior, but a lot of really talented footballers can be bad people at an early age. People grow up and learn eventually; I think of someone like Marcus Edwards who had similar growing pains but seems to have settled into himself and is making a very nice career for himself away from Tottenham.
But back to Cherki — those stats, my god! He feels like an ideal creative midfielder for Spurs, whether that be under Ange Postecoglou or some other manager. He signed a new contract with Lyon last summer after the PSG deal fell apart, and according to GFFN that new contract has a purchase clause of just €22.5m (£19m). That’s a steal for a player with his ceiling at his age, and there are strong indications that Lyon might simply be Done With Him.™