Young boys and girls from all around the world have been desperate to try to fulfil their top flight ambitions in recent years, because the product created by millions invested in the most exhilarating talent on offer was simply too irresistible.
Safe to say Ben White and Pep Guardiola weren’t fans of Rayan Cherki’s juggling…
pic.twitter.com/JmLLNGlxuR
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) March 23, 2026
Manchester City maverick Rayan Cherki offered us a way out on Sunday. And those so wrapped up in the focus on results could not handle it.
“I think it’s a bit too early for that if I am being honest,” said chief party pooper, Gary Neville, after Cherki had performed three kick-ups in the second-half of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final. “That was a little bit arrogant.”
The France international’s manager, Pep Guardiola, immediately shook his head in disgust too. Guardiola can be forgiven, given his vested interest. Neville spends so much time being negative about Manchester United, repeating the same “it’s not as good as it was in my day” mantra, that anything that could put victory in jeopardy automatically elicits chastisement.
In this season of all seasons, in a league of bruisers, we need these few seconds of sweet relief. A glimpse into the past when football used to be fun.
It was not out of character. As Guardiola clinched his 40th career trophy and Arsenal’s long wait for a title dragged on, the City boss was about to burst into celebration as the referee blew the final whistle at Wembley. Only to be barged in the back by the only player who comes close to his own nonconformist mindset.
City have spent half a billion pounds in the past 18 months. While many of their captures have impressed, filling the shoes of elite treble winners Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Kyle Walker and Ederson has proven a tough task, especially in the short term.
Plenty have come in and excelled, but to the level of their illustrious predecessors? Cherki is again the only one to buck the trend.
His all-round performance in the second-half against Arsenal was a lesson to the then quadruple-chasing Gunners: brute and brawn can only get you so far.
On the grandest of stages, ingenuity, breathless skill and attacking intent, conspicuous by its absence on a weekly basis in the Premier League, can still win the day.
If the byproduct of a player with that enviable level of supreme ability on the ball is that, every now and then, he might start doing kick-ups in the middle of the pitch, even when a game is far from won, then so be it.
It is a sacrifice more managers now must be willing to take, for everyone’s sanity. Did we say the same about Ronaldinho’s no-look passes? Or Cristiano Ronaldo’s mindboggling stepovers?
Neville might believe what Cherki did to be arrogant, but boy could the Premier League do with some arrogance right now. Remember when football used to be fun? No, me neither. So let those who are trying to take us back to those days do what they want, when they want and more often.
