We\u2019ve seen enough: Florian Wirtz is better than Rayan Cherki. That was a Manchester City debut to forget for the young Frenchman.<\/p>\n
No matter how much Liverpool fans crow over their comparative five-year net spend<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0the successes of their previous record signings<\/a><\/strong> or validating the signing of Florian Wirtz on the basis of them not spending anything last summer or with the old \u2018that\u2019s just what the best cost\u2019 argument that we\u2019re fairly sure would have seen them baulking and shaking heads when Chelsea or Manchester City have broken the bank in the past, \u00a3116m is a helluva lot of money.<\/p>\n There will be huge pressure on everyone involved in his transfer: Wirtz to prove he\u2019s worth the money; sporting director Richard Hughes who\u2019s made the 22-year-old his first marquee signing having been embarrassed by Martin Zubimendi last summer; Arne Slot to ease him into a team without upsetting the title-winning dynamic.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Five reasons why Florian Wirtz may not actually be a good signing for Liverpool<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n That pressure has been ramped up significantly by Manchester City signing<\/a><\/strong> a younger, arguably superior playmaker for a quarter of the price in Rayan Cherki. The stats don\u2019t lie<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The social media posturing over who\u2019s signed the better player or done the best deal is already incredibly tiresome. Wirtz\u2019s goal for Germany against Portugal in the Nations League provided undeniable proof of his supremacy before Cherki\u2019s goal and assist for France vs Spain the very next day led to City finger wags and cry-laughing emojis in response.<\/p>\n We should probably\u00a0wait to reserve judgement on Cherki and Wirtz, we could even sit atop a pedestal and refuse to compare them at all in a highfalutin, happy-clappy bid to prove ourselves as the foremost champions of an old-world view where two footballers could be very good and possibly equally good at football without being forced to decide which one is better as if we\u2019ve got a TikToker pointing a phone at us in Winner Stays On. But nah, Wirtz is better.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s game is less beautiful, fewer mistakes, but also fewer risks taken,\u201d Cherki said after joining Manchester City, in quotes rather lost amid his claim that he wants to \u201ckill\u201d Manchester United. \u201cI want to bring that spark back and give kids the joy it once had.\u201d he added. Jack Grealish wants a word.<\/p>\n