Former Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca is expected to replace Pep Guardiola at Manchester City this summer.
On Monday night, news broke that Guardiola would be stepping down as City boss, paving the way for his former assistant Maresca to succeed him.
Maresca has been out of work since resigning himself, with the Italian quitting Chelsea at the start of January.
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Now that Maresca is set to take over at the Etihad, there is a belief that he walked away from Stamford Bridge knowing that he would get the opportunity to replace Guardiola.
However, that is not true, according to talkSPORT. A report from their website claims that Maresca did not leave Chelsea with knowledge that he would be Guardiola’s successor and even raised the possibility of signing a new contract in west London.
Whether Chelsea supporters will buy that or not is anyone’s guess, but the reality is Maresca will be City boss next season and their opponent.
It was only last summer when Maresca was guiding this Chelsea side to Club World Cup glory, showing how quickly things can change in football. Under him, the Blues were also able to win the Conference League.
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City are not the only Premier League club getting a new manager. After the failure of Maresca’s successor Liam Rosenior, Chelsea have hired Xabi Alonso.
Alonso is a young and modern manager like Maresca, who also wants his team to dominate and be proactive during games.
Chelsea versus City could be a very interesting battle next season, then, more interesting than what we have seen in recent years.
This fixture has been extremely one-sided, with City’s 1-0 victory in the FA Cup final making it 14 games without defeat against Chelsea.
With Guardiola going, hopefully that changes, and it should. Maresca is a talented coach, but he is not on Guardiola’s level just yet.
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