French media "Team News" stated in an article discussing the transfer of Cherky that the player team had only negotiated with Manchester City and Liverpool.
Cherky is about to join Manchester City, with a transfer fee of more than 40.5 million euros. The contract has been five years, and only details need to be finalized. Lyon will retain a 15% transfer share in the future, and may also receive a 2 million euros bonus by 2030. Manchester City is the only club that Lyon offers a quote, as Cherki's agent only chooses to negotiate with Manchester City and Liverpool. Slott met with the players, and Liverpool originally planned to introduce Wirtz and Cherki, rather than choose one of them.
It is worth mentioning that when the last contract renewal was conducted last year, Cherki signed a clause with club owner Textor. If Lyon had 22.5 million euros released, the transfer fee must be paid in one lump sum. However, Lyon insisted that this clause can only be triggered once, and Dortmund had already quoted in early February, so the terms were invalid. However, this statement has been questioned by the players' team, who believes that Textor failed to fulfill his promise and only paid a 3 million euro penalty after Dortmund's offer.
Manchester City, who learned of this situation, submitted its first offer last Thursday with the same amount as the clause, followed by days of intense negotiations. According to people around Cherki, Textor initially promoted the player to transfer to Nottingham Forest, asking Manchester City for 55 million euros + 5 million prizes. Soon Lyon told Manchester City that their understanding of the termination fee was not accurate, and he did not propose a formal bargaining, insisted on asking for a price of more than 40 million euros. As Manchester City desperately hoped that Cherki would participate in the Club World Cup with the team, the two sides restarted negotiations.