Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki has been compared to a god by Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage, who coached the midfielder at Lyon.

Cherki, 23, was one of four City players — alongside Nico O’Reilly, Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland — named in the 2025-26 PFA Team of the Year on Tuesday. 

After an impressive debut season at City, having joined the club from Lyon in the summer of 2025, Cherki began his 2026-27 campaign in the same vein. The France international came off the bench in City’s Premier League opener on Sunday, providing two assists to overturn a 1-0 deficit and ensure a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium.

Cherki made his Lyon debut aged 16 in 2019 and was one of Europe’s brightest talents, but remained with Lyon for five full seasons before making the move to City.

“It was a process with him (Cherki),” Sage said ahead of Palace welcoming City to Selhurst Park on Friday night, “because a lot of people thought that he would not have success in his career. I did not have this same thought.

“I explained to him: ‘You have a big talent, and I think you can show it in special contexts’. And he did that in his last game against Bournemouth. 

“(At Lyon, I told him that) you have to give something for the team defensively and keep your talent in attack. I had nothing to say to him offensively because he understood the play better than me.

“To control him, the best thing is to prevent all the passes to him, because when he has the ball he is able to do things we don’t imagine.”

Sage, 47, was previously Lyon’s academy manager before spending just over two years as the first-team head coach between November 2023 and January 2025.

After being told that Cherki had described him as a genius, Sage said: “I don’t know the word for higher than a genius (describing Cherki). I am not a genius; he is a genius. 

“To speak about something and to teach something is a step. But to do these things is another step. He is at this level. Maybe God (is the way to describe him)?”

Cherki joined City from Lyon in the summer of 2025 in a deal worth €36million (£30.3m; $41.18m) plus €6m (£5.1m; $6.9m) in add-ons. The attacking midfielder’s debut season saw him score 10 goals and provide 15 assists in 52 games as City won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup. 

Before joining City, Cherki progressed through Lyon’s academy and scored 29 goals and provided 46 assists in 185 appearances for the club. He has also scored two goals in 14 appearances for France’s national team and featured in six of the side’s seven games at this summer’s World Cup.

While City won the first game of the Enzo Maresca era, Palace lost their first Premier League game under Sage, suffering a 2-0 defeat at Everton last Saturday.

NEW YORK — With their pitching staff sputtering amid a playoff push, the Houston Astros are turning to a familiar face in search of a spark.

Longtime Astros pitching coach Brent Strom will rejoin the organization as a pitching consultant for the season’s final 29 games, manager Joe Espada announced on Thursday. Strom is expected to be in uniform and in the dugout for Houston’s series opener against the New York Mets on Friday at Citi Field.

“Strommy is one of the architects for this organization on the pitching side of things,” Espada said before Thursday’s game at Yankee Stadium. “I’m excited to bring him back, listen to his perspective, his experience. I feel like there’s a value in having him around right now as we make this push here to win the division.”

Houston entered Thursday with a half-game lead over the Texas Rangers atop the American League West despite a 4.68 ERA. Only five teams have a higher one. Dismissed general manager Dana Brown’s inability to fortify the staff — especially Houston’s struggling starting rotation — during the trade deadline frustrated many in the Astros’ clubhouse. That Brown’s six major-league, offseason additions have produced a 5.51 ERA didn’t help matters, either.

Just two starting rotations have a higher ERA than Houston’s 5.17 mark. The team has received just 10 starts of at least seven innings across the season’s first 132 games.

“Sometimes, we can spend a lot of time looking at things that are not particularly important right now during this stretch,” Espada said. “It’s about competing, me against him and my experience with Strommy has been that. It’s something we can all use during this stretch.”

Strom, 77, spent eight seasons as the Astros’ pitching coach from 2014-21, a stretch in which Houston separated itself as one of the premier pitching organizations in the sport. From 2015-21, no American League team posted a lower ERA than the Astros and only one — the Cleveland Guardians — had a lower WHIP.

Following his Astros tenure, Strom had coaching stints with both the Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2023, Strom oversaw the Arizona pitching staff that captured the National League pennant. Pittsburgh did not renew Strom’s contract after last season.

Under Strom’s watch, the Astros produced two American League Cy Young Award winners — Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander — and a runner-up in Gerrit Cole. Strom earned industry-wide acclaim for his part in helping to turn around the careers of Cole, Verlander, Collin McHugh, Charlie Morton and Ryan Pressly.

Strom has worked with multiple members of the Astros’ existing pitching staff, including setup man Bryan Abreu, starter Cristian Javier and offseason trade acquisition Mike Burrows, whom Strom coached with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“He’s got this presence about him (to) connect with younger pitchers (and) older pitchers,” Espada said. “Also, (he is) very simple in how he teaches things. He can go outside the box, but he also stays on: ‘This is what you need to compete during the stretch.’ There is that experience that I think is needed.”

Strom left the Astros after the 2021 season. At the time, he described the decision as an opportunity for him to reset and for Houston to enjoy the work of his two proteges — Josh Miller and Bill Murphy — who had assisted him throughout the season. Miller remains the Astros’ head pitching coach. Murphy left the organization this winter to become the Pirates’ pitching coach. Ethan Katz replaced Murphy and now assists Miller.

“It’s a fresh (set) of eyes. He’s going to be in our meetings. He’s going to be helping in the throwing programs, video analysis,” Espada said. “I just feel like this is something we will benefit from having around.”