New Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca is expected to bring in six trusted allies to form a new-look backroom staff
Enzo Maresca (centre) with his backroom team, from left, Roberto Vitiello, Michele De Bernardin, Marcos Alvarez, Danny Walker, Willy Caballero and Javi Molina after Maresca won the Premier League manager of the month award in September 2024 while at Chelsea
Enzo Maresca (centre) with his backroom team, from left, Roberto Vitiello, Michele De Bernardin, Marcos Alvarez, Danny Walker, Willy Caballero and Javi Molina after Maresca won the Premier League manager of the month award in September 2024 while at Chelsea
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Enzo Maresca's Manchester City appointment was confirmed this week with the new boss now officially in charge at the Etihad.
The Italian has signed a three-year contract to replace Pep Guardiola and lead the new City era. Maresca is already at work behind the scenes at his new club as he aims to hit the ground running.
With the majority of his squad at the World Cup, Maresca will be working with a skeleton playing staff in the early weeks of his tenure, with pre-season training set to start on Monday, July 20.
Between now and then, the City chief will confirm his new-look backroom team, and Maresca is set to bring in six staff members.
City lost more than Guardiola in the summer, with his right-hand man Manel Estiarte and fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura, who have been with him for all of his time in Manchester, also departing.
Goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor left, having spent even longer than that at the club after joining while Manuel Pellegrini was in charge, while Pep Lijnders and assistant Kolo Toure also departed after just 12 months at the Etihad.
That leaves just one senior survivor on the backroom team in set-piece coach James French, who joined from Liverpool last summer. He is set to be joined by a host of new faces as Marcesa brings in his tried and trusted inner circle.
Roberto Vitiello was his assistant at Chelsea and Leicester and played alongside Maresca at Palermo in Italy. He had a lengthy playing career in Italy, making nearly 500 senior appearances, the majority of which came in Serie B.
Former City goalkeeper Willy Caballero looks likely to make a return to the Etihad as an assistant having worked with Maresca at both his previous clubs in England. Caballero was a League Cup winner with the Blues during a playing career that took him to Malaga in Spain where he played with Maresca.
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Another former City staff member could be back as first team coach. Danny Walker worked alongside Maresca in the Blues academy before moving to Peterborough United. Maresca hired him at Leicester and Chelsea.
Goalkeeper coach Michele De Bernardin and fitness coach Marcos Alvarez, who first worked with the former Chelsea boss at Parma, along with Javier Molina Caballero, who was an analyst with the Italian club and like De Bernardin and Alvarez has worked with Maresca in his past two jobs, are also set to arrive.
All six are currently out of work having left Stamford Bridge when Maresca was axed in January and the sextet are all likely to form City's new-look coaching staff, alongside set-piece guru French.