Having seen their winning streak come to an end on Saturday, could the transfer market provide Newcastle United supporters with a lift?
At the weekend, the Magpies were surprisingly beaten 4-1 by Bournemouth at St James’ Park, bringing to an end a nine-match winning streak, which had equalled the club’s top-flight record set in 1994.
Nevertheless, the Toon Army can’t be too disgruntled, considering their team currently occupy a Champions League spot, and are all but through to March’s EFL Cup Final.
Nevertheless, could Eddie Howe’s team make a high-profile edition to help them push on in the second half of the season?
Newcastle could sign French wonderkid
Reports from November by Mark Douglas of the i Paper suggested that Newcastle were continuing to monitor Olympique Lyonnais forward Rayan Cherki.
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This story has now accelerated further because, on Sunday, Florian Plettenberg and Patrick Berger of Sky Sports Deutschland reported that Lyon are now willing to listen to offers as low as €22m (£19m) for Cherki this month, with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and “several top clubs from England… monitoring his situation”, adding that this would be “an absolute bargain”
That said, Lyon will surely not want to lose the 21-year-old, who still has 18 months left on his contract, but they are under enormous pressure to sell players this month.
That’s because, as noted by Colin Millar, Matt Slater and Matt Woosnam of the Athletic, les Gones have been provisionally relegated from Ligue 1 “following an audit of their finances”, informed by the DNCG they must “satisfactorily improve their financial situation before the end of this season”.
It is believed that Lyon must raise around €100m by the end of the season, or the seven-time French champions will be expelled from the top division.
Even before making his senior debut against Dijon in October 2019, Cherki was destined for greatness, with Tom Williams of BR Football noting he was tipped to “emulate Kylian Mbappé” from the age of 17.
What Rayan Cherki would bring to Newcastle
Still only 21-years-old, he’s made 163 appearances for Lyon, racking up 22 goals and 33 assists, scoring five times so far this season, having helped France win Olympic silver medals on home soil last summer.
Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout believes Cherki to be a “world-class talent”, adding that the Frenchman is amongst the “most enjoyable youngsters to watch in world football”.
Meantime, StatsBomb founder Ted Knutson describes Cherki as a “masterful dribbler” and a “precocious talent”, with Alex Barker of the Athletic going a step further and claiming he is “a future Ballon d’Or winner”.
Given all of that, fair to say he’d be quite the coup if Newcastle were to get their hands on him.
As noted by Louise Taylor of the Guardian, Newcastle have always had a strong “Francophone” influence, with Allan Saint-Maximin, Rémy Cabella, Loïc Rémy, Moussa Sissoko, Yohan Cabaye, Laurent Robert and David Ginola, to name but a few, among the many French players to have made their mark on Tyneside.
However, stylistically, the player Cherki most resembles could be Hatem Ben Arfa with their innate dribbling and ability to make something happen out of nothing certainly similar.
The maverick scored 14 goals and provided 15 assists during four years in the Northeast, so let’s see how he and Cherki compare.
Appearances
100
77
Minutes
5,740
4,523
Goals
13
12
Assists
23
11
Shots
173
124
Shots on target
60
42
Passes
2,932
1,631
Touches
3,608
2,858
As outlined in the table above, since the start of the 2022/23 seasons, Cherki’s statistics are universally better than Ben Arfa’s, when he was at his peak at Newcastle.
Across Europe’s top five leagues, out of 1,197 players who’ve created at least one chance this season, Cherki ranks third for expected assists per 90 this season, behind only Kevin De Bruyne and Ousmane Dembélé, hence why Statman Dave on Twitter believes he will be a “dream long-term” number ten for any club.
It’s not just from a creative standpoint where the players compare nicely, however, with their ability to take on players a standout quality. For context, only two players in Ligue 1 this term have successfully completed more dribbles per game (2.2) than Cherki. That’s notable because in 2012/13, no player registered more dribbles per match in the Premier League than Ben Arfa (4.2).
Beyond that, though, as beloved as Ben Arfa is on Tyneside, should Cherki arrive, he’d surely surpass his legacy.
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