Rayan Cherki has been one of the more prominent names to be linked with Liverpool during the January transfer window.
The playmaker has a verbal agreement with Lyon which’d allow him to leave before the end of his current contract in June 2026 if an offer of €22.5m (£19m) is made, with the Ligue 1 club treading a thin financial line amid the threat of demotion to the French second tier.
Last week, Fabrizio Romano claimed that ‘there could be movement’ from LFC for the 21-year-old, although he added that no ‘proper negotiation’ had yet taken place between the two clubs.
What’s the latest on Liverpool and Cherki?
On Tuesday morning, CaughtOffside sources reported that Liverpool and Manchester United have both enquired about Cherki, who’s available for the figure quoted above as his agents actively seek to find him a new club.
However, the timeframe to get a deal done before next Monday’s transfer deadline appears to be too tight for the Reds, who’d prefer to wait until the summer to consider recruiting in that area of the pitch.
Can Liverpool afford to sit tight for Cherki?
Although the wealth of attacking options available to Arne Slot would make Cherki a luxury signing rather than a necessary one for Liverpool, he still appears to represent the sort of opportunistic coup in which FSG have specialised in recent years.
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas claimed that the 21-year-old is ‘comparable to [Lionel] Messi in terms of technical quality’ (G0AL), so it’s no wonder that a fee of less than £20m for the playmaker was dubbed an ‘absolute bargain‘ by Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg.
Also, if the Reds stick to their rumoured plan to hold off until the summer, that could leave the door open for other prospective suitors to pounce in the coming days, thus depriving the Merseysiders of their chance to swoop for him.
Maybe if a rival club were to bid for him this week, Liverpool would be jolted into immediate action like they were when nabbing Luis Diaz from under Tottenham’s noses three years ago, so perhaps there might still be a slim possibility of a move from Anfield for Cherki before Monday.
