Cherki seemed in good spirits on Tuesday evening when posing for pictures and signing autographs for fans at the PFA awards in Manchester, where he was named in the Team of the Year and nominated for the Young Player of the Year award.

His goal contributions last weekend mean he has now provided 12 assists from open play since the start of last season – more than any other Premier League player during that period.

But despite his creativity, Cherki is yet to become a regular starter for City.

Under former manager Pep Guardiola last season he made 33 Premier League appearances – but 14 of those were as a substitute.

At this summer’s World Cup, he played a bit-part role – albeit he is competing against a star-studded array of France forwards.

His only start was against England in the third-fourth place play-off and he was replaced at half-time with his side 4-0 down.

That took his game time to 124 minutes across the whole tournament and videos emerged of Cherki showing apparent displeasure at coach Didier Deschamps.

Maresca admitted after Sunday’s victory that Cherki is not a man to hide his feelings.

“Rayan is quite a nice and clear boy, if he is not happy he wants to show it. If he’s next to me and he’s not happy, you all realise that he is not happy because he is doing anything just to show that he is not happy.”

In City’s recent documentary on Amazon, chief executive Ferran Soriano revealed there were question marks over Cherki’s attitude before he was signed from Lyon for £30m in June 2025.

“The information on Cherki was not so positive, I will be very honest,” said Soriano. “Everybody knew about his abilities, but there was this idea that he was chaotic.”

Maresca was seen striding towards Cherki at full-time on Sunday, before placing his arms around the player’s shoulders and appearing to relay some sort of lecture.

What was said between the pair has not been made public and when asked afterwards if the forward would start a game soon, the Italian replied by saying “absolutely, yeah”.

Cherki’s biggest challenge this season might be to keep his emotions in check and his spirits high if the flamboyant but fiery playmaker has to wait longer than he feels he should for a regular place in City’s starting line-up.

Having previously stated there were “no guarantees” that Wrexham would add to their ranks after a 1-1 draw with Watford, Kabore and Ekomie have become the club’s fourth and fifth signings of the window after the arrivals of midfielder Ben Whiteman, goalkeeper Anthony Patterson and right wing-back Danny Imray.

“With Issa coming back, he was a very popular player with us last year, and I think our supporters really warmed to him,” Parkinson said of Kabore.

“I think the time is right for Issa in his career to get a home now. He’s had a lot of loan moves in his career, and [it’s time] to really settle down and establish himself as a player.

“He’s got great energy and personality in the way he plays and we look forward to working with him in the coming years.”

On Ekomie, Parkinson commented: “Jacques is a similar player in many respects to Issa in the way he plays. He’s someone we’ve been working on for quite a while and faced quite a bit of competition to bring him here.

“We’re delighted to have got him over; he’s been with us for a couple of days of training and has settled in well.”

Former Liverpool and England player turned pundit Jamie Carragher faces being declared bankrupt over an unpaid tax bill.

Filings seen by the BBC show that a case was filed against James Lee Duncan Carragher on Wednesday.

Carragher and his representatives have been approached for comment.

The ‘bankruptcy petition’ filed by lawyers representing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was first reported by City AM.

A spokesperson for HMRC told BBC Sport that it did not comment on individual cases, but a spokesperson added: “We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and do everything we can to help those who engage with us to get out of debt, such as offering instalment plans.

“We only petition for bankruptcy as a last resort.”

Carragher, who played for Liverpool between 1996 and 2013, regularly appears on Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage, the Stick To Football show and CBS Sports’ Champions League programming.