June 18, 2025, Bronx, New York, USA: Manager of Manchester City Pep Guardiola seen during FIFA Club World Cup 2025: Manchester City vs Wydad AC match at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on June 18, 2025. Manchester City won 2 - 0. Bronx USA - ZUMAr339 20250618_znp_r339_075 Copyright: Imago Images
Man City manager Pep Guardiola has delivered an early blow to Premier League champions Liverpool by stealing a player that Arne Slot personally wanted to sign. Guardiola and Manchester City convinced the star to reject a move to Anfield in favour of joining the Etihad outfit in the ongoing transfer window.
Guardiola and Man City will be raring to go this summer after performing below expectations last season and allowing Liverpool to win the Premier League title on a canter.
Liverpool have grabbed the eyeballs with their pursuit of Florian Wirtz, a player Guardiola wanted, but Manchester City have spent big money since the last winter window to bolster their squad.
Manchester City have indeed beaten Liverpool to the signature of a player, who Slot was personally invested in signing in the ongoing transfer window.
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Man City convinced Rayan Cherki to snub Liverpool and Arne Slot
Arne Slot personally flew out to the south of France to meet Rayan Cherki towards the end of May to convince him to join him at Liverpool.
However, Manchester City worked out personal terms with the player and agreed on a £42m deal with Lyon in lightning-quick pace this month.
Football expert Stefan Borson feels Manchester City did a fantastic job of convincing Cherki to ignore clubs such as Liverpool and move to the Etihad.
“I think there can be a lot of premature assessments of players before they’ve even kicked a ball”, Borson told Football Insider.
“We have seen that many times in the past.
“The fee looks like a good fee.
“I mean, it is slightly surprising that when it came to it, there weren’t more European clubs fighting, or maybe City had done a very good job of getting them effectively out of the way and convincing the player that that was the right move.
“They certainly did that with Liverpool.
“We know that Liverpool had conversations with him.
“I wonder whether there was some handshake that Lyon had with Cherki that said if a fee comes in of X or Y, then we will let you go for that fee.”
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