‘The player is available…’ – Romano teases potential Liverpool ‘movement’ for Ligue 1 wizard
Fabrizio Romano has teased the possibility of ‘movement’ from Liverpool for a Ligue 1-based talent who’s ‘available’ for transfer this month.
The Reds have been linked with Lyon playmaker Rayan Cherki in recent weeks, with Santi Aouna of Foot Mercato reporting in December that the Merseyside club have been ‘working behind the scenes’ on a prospective raid for the 21-year-old.
A month later, there’s no discernible sign of any imminent transfer to Anfield for the youngster, although Romano doubled down on rumours of interest from LFC in the player.
Romano teases Liverpool ‘movement’ for Cherki
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, Romano outlined: “He [Cherki] has a release clause. It’s not a proper clause, but it’s a gentleman’s agreement – made with the president of Olympique Lyon, John Textor, in the summer when he signed a new contract at Olympique Lyon – for €22.5million [£19m].
“The player is available already now. This sort of clause is also valid in the summer, but also now, so it’s a big opportunity for many clubs. Cherki received many calls from Germany, from England, from Italy – many agents who wanted to understand the situation around him.
“My information is that at the moment, there is still nothing really close. There could be movement with Liverpool at the moment. The appreciation of the player in terms of scouting him has been there, because they’ve been following the player.
“They are always following talents, but at the moment, I’m not aware of a proper negotiation between Liverpool and Olympique Lyon for Cherki.”
Time running out for Liverpool to snap up Cherki this month
For Liverpool to get a player of Cherki’s quality for less than £20m in this era would be a steal, even when taking into consideration Lyon’s need to raise funds in order to avoid being punished with relegation to Ligue 2.
His club’s president Jean-Michel Aulas claimed that the 21-year-old is ‘comparable to [Lionel] Messi in terms of technical quality’ (G0AL), and when looking at the youngster’s statistics, that claim mightn’t seem as laughably bullish as it might initially sound.
As per FBref, the French wizard ranks among the top 1% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues over the past year wtih his match averages for assists (0.51), shot-creating actions (7.56), successful take-ons (4.55) and progressive passes (9.45).
Despite Romano hinting at the possibility of ‘movement’ from Liverpool for Cherki, the absence of any formal negotiations with Lyon at this point would indicate that a transfer seems highly unlikely to materialise before the market deadline on 3 February.
Nevertheless, this could yet fall into the category of opportunistic deal in which the Reds have specialised in recent years, so let’s not completely rule out the prospect of concrete developments just yet.
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