Cherki 'chaotic' according to his executives: how Manchester City overcame its doubts

Manchester City almost did not recruit Rayan Cherki. A documentary series unveils that the top executives of the English club had deep reservations about the mentality of French attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki before validating his transfer from OL for €36.5 million in June 2025.

It is the series A Beautiful Obsession, released this Wednesday, that lifts the veil on the behind-the-scenes of this deal. While Manchester City was seeking a successor to Kevin De Bruyne, sporting director Hugo Viana presented Cherki as a standout candidate during a filmed meeting. After discussing the forty-three performance parameters that the club reduces to seven key indicators, Viana tempered his enthusiasm: “He could be the one who will have Kevin’s profile in two years. But the mentality is… The information on Cherki was not very positive, to be honest.”

Chief executive Ferran Soriano agreed. “Everyone knew his potential, but we had the impression he was chaotic,” he said in front of the cameras.

It was ultimately a direct conversation between Pep Guardiola and the player that swung the decision. The footage captures the Catalan coach concluding the exchange with a promise: “Tomorrow, we start our new adventure and it will be better than last season, I promise.” Enough to dispel the last internal hesitations and trigger the green light for a recruitment that the club had almost abandoned.

Formed for fifteen years at Olympique Lyonnais, Cherki joins Manchester City at 21 years old with the pressure of embodying, ultimately, the heir to a De Bruyne who has marked a decade of European football.