Published: 02:00, 3 November 2025 | Updated: 02:00, 3 November 2025

Mavericks are in short supply at the moment, not particularly wanted or needed in this age. It'll change once football enters another cycle but for now, runners and power win. The ability to follow set, meticulously planned NFL-style instructions win.

Rayan Cherki is not any of those things. He is not a modern-day attacker. He is a freer spirit, somebody who other top clubs must have passed on. He is from an era long gone – and that is no bad thing.

So when one source revealed recently that Pep Guardiola had been lamenting to friends that the game is becoming too reliant on data, complaining that nobody plays off the cuff anymore, it made sense why Manchester City parted with £31million to land him from Lyon in the summer.

Cherki has yet to play a full 90 minutes in the Premier League for City, largely because of injury. It's been an eased introduction to English football and Guardiola said after defeat at Aston Villa last week that the Frenchman's selection or otherwise...