Manchester City are making progress in their attempts to sign Rayan Cherki – and his current employer at Lyon may well be happy.talkSPORT understands that the French playmaker is in advanced talks with Pep Guardiola’s side over a summer move.Cherki told Lyon fans he’d be leaving after the season finale and it appears City is his landing spotAFPCherki has long been the subject of transfer speculation, but more surprising is the fact that his club owner is so happy to discuss his situation.John Textor, who is also a majority shareholder at Crystal Palace and Botafogo, has publicly talked the sale of his star man, revealing a move to Borussia Dortmund fell through last summer.Cherki was also the subject of interest from Paris Saint-Germain, but the American owner didn’t want to sell to his rivals, despite the 21-year-old asking for a move to the capital.It appeared that Cherki could well leave in January, but just before the window opened, alleged WhatsApp messages leaked of Textor criticising the France international months earlier.“It’s July 4th, and I’m still listening to this little a****** who you would like to sign. Are you still interested?” a screenshot circulated in the French media showed.“Dortmund has now spoken to us, for the first time, and I am happy to tell them to go f*** off… I just need to know that you still want the player. Thx.”A follow-up response saw Textor reply: “Terrific… I think the kid is a good kid. I think his team of people are total a**holes. I will send him a message tonight that Dortmund can f*** off. Thx!”Those conversations may well have been with PSG, as Textor later revealed: “It’s been three or four seasons that Cherki has wanted to leave. It has nothing to do with the DNCG [penalties from the league’s financial body]. “He wanted to go to PSG last year. He sent me a message saying, ‘I really want to go to PSG.'”Oddly, nothing came of the talk in January, despite reports from L’Equipe that Cherki sent a formal letter drafted by his lawyers asking the club to accept a £20million offer from Dortmund.Textor has regularly talked about Cherki and revealed he turned down offers from Dortmund and PSGAFPTextor clearly thought he was worth far more than that, as he told RMC Sport in November.“We lost €15million [£12.5m] from his potential sale [to Paris Saint-Germain] last summer, but now his value is way higher,” he said.“He should stay in January, but it’s up to Rayan, as is always the case in football.”The player did end up staying, but now looks likely to be Man City’s first summer arrival after their £200million January spend on Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.Lyon fans will at least be happy he isn’t going to arch rivals and new European champions PSG.Textor previously said he wasn’t willing to sell a player to the capital side during a spat with their president Nasser Al-Khelaifi over TV rights. “Today? No, it won’t happen,” he said when asked about Cherki moving to PSG.“I don’t want to sell a player of this quality to Nasser until we’ve shaken hands, shared a beer and decided together to help the French championship.“Obviously, my relationship with Nasser isn’t what it used to be, but men are men and you can get past that. But for the time being, no, I won’t sell him anyone.”Textor later created headlines when another alleged leaked WhatsApp from the TV rights dispute showed Al-Khelaifi calling him a ‘cowboy’.The Missouri-native then turned up at a Lyon game wearing a cowboy hat in response.The pair have since quashed their beef with Textor invited as a guest to PSG’s Champions League semi-final win over Arsenal and seen smiling and shaking hands with Al-Khelaifi.Either way, Cherki to PSG is now looking unlikely, with City the benefactors.