Sky Sports drop seismic Man Utd transfer update amid Europa League heartbreak | OneFootball

Manchester United already have one eye on the future despite incurring an upsetting defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final.

Mere moments before the Red Devils were due to kick off, Florian Plettenberg confirmed the Red Devils had officially ‘entered the race for Rayan Cherki’.

The French international has stunned the continent with his dazzling goalscoring displays for Lyon in 2024/25.

The 21-year-old has registered 32 goal contributions in 44 games (across all competitions) this season.

Manchester United to beat Liverpool to Rayan Cherki?

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The Sky Germany journalist confirmed the news on X on Wednesday evening ahead of the Europa League final in Bilbao.

It seems that Ruben Amorim’s United can get the jump on Liverpool (who have also been linked with Cherki), this summer.

The Merseysiders are, admittedly, somewhat occupied with a move for Florian Wirtz. But there’s no reason why we can’t use this to our advantage in pushing to complete a potentially game-changing attacking signing.

Manchester United have to watch out for Tottenham

One fear that will no doubt be playing on United’s recruitment team’s minds will be whether or not Tottenham still intend to sign Cherki this summer.

If so, we’ve got a pretty obvious problem on our hands: Spurs now have Champions League football, whilst we’ve got no such European football to tempt potential signings.

Manchester United are still, of course, the more prestigious outfit. But how many times can we rely on this coming up against clubs with the riches of the Champions League at their fingertips?

What do the stats say about Cherki?

We’d be curious to see where exactly the Frenchman would fit in Amorim’s somewhat narrower formation at Old Trafford.

Traditionally deployed as a right winger, we’d either need to see the Ligue 1 star deployed as one of United’s wing-backs or centrally as an attacking midfielder behind the lone striker.

* Rayan Cherki’s games played in various positions in his senior Lyon career, via Transfermarkt

To take the attacking midfield position as a point of reference, we could certainly see how Rayan Cherki’s skillset would be of benefit.

The footballer is, in short, a creative monster. FBref consider the French top-flight star one of the leading creative players in Europe’s top five leagues.

Cherki ranks in the 99th percentile for both xAG (0.5 per 90) and shot-creating actions (6.8 per 90).

Whilst he’s more than capable of successfully carrying the ball and beating his man, the Lyon man loves to feed a teammate with his progressive passing (98th percentile for progressive passes completed).

Manchester United players can’t compete for creativity

Even whilst accounting for the comparative upgrade in difficulty between Ligue 1 and the Premier League, Rayan Cherki looks a potentially excellent buy this summer.

No current Manchester United attacking midfielder can compare with their Lyon counterpart for creative threat.

* Ligue 1 and Premier League stats for the 2024/25 season, via Sofascore

Should Alejandro Garnacho depart this summer, which is a distinct possibility, his potential replacement should be blatantly obvious.

It just remains to be seen whether this is a deal United can still get done without Champions League football.