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Will Man City's style of play change under Enzo Maresca? (1:43)
Manchester City pride themselves on their ability to plan ahead -- even if it turns out to be unnecessary.
With doubts about whether Pep Guardiola would sign another contract in the middle of 2022, the club drew up contingency plans just in case. One of the names high on the list was Julian Nagelsmann, and there were internal conversations at the Etihad Stadium about whether he could be prised away from Bayern Munich if a vacancy opened up.
City never found out the answer, because they didn't need to. Guardiola signed an extension in November and won the Treble six months later.
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On this occasion, the planning had to be more concrete. City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak revealed in his end-of-season interview that Guardiola tried to quit "100 times" in 10 years, but this time he finally meant it.
Suspicions that the Catalan was running out of energy led City to compile dossiers on a number of managers. Khaldoon said in May that club bosses have "gone through a very thoughtful and structured process" to find Guardiola's replacement. The name they've landed on is Enzo Maresca.
"Enzo was the stand-out candidate in our considerations," said CEO Ferran Soriano as part of Monday's official announcement of the Italian coach's return to the club. It's an appointment made with purpose.
Other managers have more on their CV than Maresca's UEFA Conference League, FIFA Club World Cup and Championship title, but the 46-year-old hasn't been hired because of his trophy haul. For City, he's the right man at the right moment, a man who, they hope, will help smooth the transition away from Guardiola.
Maresca already knows how the club works, having been hired to coach the Elite Development Squad in August 2020 and then, after a brief stint at Parma, as one of Guardiola's first-team assistants in June 2022. It was telling that on Monday it was rammed home just how familiar City are with Maresca, and vice versa.
Enzo Maresca replacing Pep Guardiola was Manchester City's long-term strategy, something the Italian's former club Chelsea have changed since his exit.
"He's someone that has been part of this club, part of the success of the club, someone we all know very, very well," said Khaldoon. "He knows us very, very well and he's been part of this family."
Having worked so closely with Guardiola in the past, it should mean that when the players return to preseason there will be very few surprises. "Enzo's the spit of Pep," said Jamie Vardy, who worked under Maresca at Leicester City. "It's literally exactly the same style of play. It's like having a clone."
Maresca is not quite a Guardiola copy-and-paste. He won plaudits of his own during his 18-month spell at Chelsea and at one point Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was hailing the 46-year-old as one of the most innovative coaches in the Premier League.
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"In my opinion they [Chelsea] are the best attacking team in the league," Arteta said in March 2025. "In open play, yes. By a mile. I mean the stats say it and everything that I've seen, says it.
"They can open you up, they can run in transition, they have individual quality, any player in the defensive line can throw you in behind, they can combine on both sides, on weak sides.
"It's my opinion. I have a lot of data, the objective one, what it says and as well what I've seen in the games that they play. I might be wrong, I don't know."
It was quite the compliment for Maresca in what was his first season as a manager in England's top flight.
Khaldoon says Maresca has "taken a lot of inspiration in the philosophy of Pep, but he's also evolved his own philosophy." The suggestion is that while the core principles will remain the same, some of the patterns, positioning and combinations will be different -- especially when the team attacks.
Enzo Maresca was part of Pep Guardiola's coaching staff when Manchester City won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League Treble.
It's not just on the pitch that Maresca ticks the right boxes. When David Moyes took over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013 after 27 trophy-laden years he walked into a dressing room full of senior players like Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra and struggled to win them over. It made an already daunting job even more difficult, and Moyes was sacked after just 10 months. The hope for City is Maresca doesn't have the same problem.
As Guardiola's assistant during the Treble-winning season, he's already got relationships with Erling Haaland, Rúben Dias and Rodri -- three key members of the leadership group. He also coached Nico O'Reilly during his time with the academy.
Maresca needs the players onside quickly this summer and he should have a head start given that he's not walking in cold. Another manager would be starting from scratch.
City have had to pay £17 million in compensation to Chelsea for Maresca's services, but so convinced are they that he's the right man that sources close to the club have told ESPN that they believe they've got a good deal.
It's likely that they would have still tried to prise him away from Stamford Bridge had he stayed in the Chelsea job instead of resigning in January. He's not been chosen simply because he's out of work. -- Rob Dawson
Chelsea set record straight over Maresca exit
It is unusual for a club to release a statement in the manner Chelsea did on Monday, but officials felt it was important for them to set the record straight. Public confirmation that Maresca has paid compensation to the Blues is significant because it represents what the club will feel is vindication at their frustration over how Maresca's era unravelled.
Sources told ESPN at the time of Maresca's exit in January that there were tensions behind the scenes. These focused on Maresca's frustrations at what he felt was a limited head coach role, denied more of a say on transfers and player loan management than he believed was acceptable. This feeds into a wider debate about Chelsea's ownership model and whether the conditions truly exist for a head coach to thrive. But what the Blues are going to great lengths to explain is Maresca's personal role in agitating for an exit.
With legal proceedings underway at the time, nobody could report definitively whether Maresca left or he was sacked. Today, it has been described as a "resignation," and that doesn't come lightly.
It is an acknowledgment of what ESPN reported at the time: Maresca was speaking to City for some time and he had reported this interest to Chelsea while also letting it be known that he was open to the move. That only exacerbated internal tensions at Stamford Bridge. How can they build something with a young squad if everyone knows the head coach wants to go?
We'll probably never truly know how much of what followed was down to Maresca agitating for a way out or genuine disagreements as they tried to find a way forward together. After all, club sources made the point that Maresca knew what he was signing up for only a year earlier when he joined from Leicester City without any managerial experience in the Premier League.
But either way, Chelsea have clearly taken some lessons from the situation, not to mention the £17 million from City -- plus whatever Maresca has added on top -- which is useful to a club with no European football this season. -- James Olley
City impressed by Maresca's desire
City bosses are not naive enough to think that picking up the reins from Guardiola will be easy. They know there's no guarantee of success, but that's also true of anyone attempting to follow their greatest ever manager.
City have tried to negate as many of the risks as possible. Maresca knows the club, knows the players and knows the Premier League. Crucially, he also wants the job.
"This is a big challenge, this scares off many people," said Khaldoon. "The beauty with Enzo is he actually wants that challenge. He loves that challenge."
Finding a coach to pick up where Guardiola left off is the ultimate test of City's ability to plan ahead. Only time will tell if hiring Maresca is the right move. -- Dawson
How Chelsea adapted model post-Maresca
Although the appointment of Maresca's successor, Liam Rosenior, quickly unravelled, Chelsea recognised a need to adapt their model. New boss Xabi Alonso has been made 'manager' from the outset, which might sound like a minor promotion but it points to the sort of increased influence which Maresca desired.
Chelsea's policy of prioritising young signings to assemble a squad that can grow together is also changing. Maresca wanted more experienced players in his squad to help guide the younger ones but faced resistance. The Blues' pursuit of Granit Xhaka this summer points to a shift in thinking.
Alonso knows Xhaka from their time together at Bayer Leverkusen but he turns 34 in September. Despite the midfielder impressing at Sunderland, it surely isn't the sort of deal Chelsea would have thought about previously. However, they have had an £8 million bid rebuffed and are continuing to try and find an agreement.
Whether they are successful with that deal or not, Alonso is being listened to. That suggests Chelsea have taken learnings from the whole Maresca affair, no matter who was to blame. -- Olley