Rayan Cherki: Manchester City's Future Star

Rayan Cherki has been tagged with big labels before, but this one carries real weight inside Manchester City’s corridors of power.

City’s hierarchy view the Frenchman as a long-term heir to Kevin De Bruyne, the player they hope will one day run their attack and dictate games from midfield. For someone who has worked closest with him, that projection is no surprise at all.

Sage, who coached Cherki through Lyon’s academy and into the first team, remembers a very different noise around the youngster in those early years.

“It was a process with him, because a lot of people thought that he would not have success in his career,” he said, looking ahead to Friday’s trip to South London. “I did not have this same thought. I explained to him: ‘You have a big talent, and I think you can show it in special contexts’. And he did that in his last game against Bournemouth.”

The message back then was simple: keep the flair, add the graft.

“You have to give something for the team defensively and keep your talent in attack,” Sage said. “I had nothing to say to him offensively because he understood the play better than me.”

That last line lands with force. A coach admitting the pupil sees the game quicker, sharper, clearer.

So how do you stop a player like that? Sage’s answer is blunt.

“To control him, the best thing is to prevent all the passes to him, because when he has the ball he is able to do things we don't imagine.”

That ability to bend games to his will is exactly what has convinced City’s decision-makers that Cherki can one day take on De Bruyne’s creative mantle. They see a player who can live in tight spaces, pick the killer pass, and still carry the ball through pressure when the game locks up.

Cherki, for his part, has spoken about Sage as a kind of footballing mastermind. When that compliment was put to him, the coach pushed it straight back.

“I don't know the word for higher than a genius,” Sage replied. “I am not a genius; he is a genius. To speak about something and to teach something is a step. But to do these things is another step. He is at this level. Maybe God?”

For City, that’s exactly the level they are betting on.