Enzo Maresca wrote his name into the Leicester City history books last season as they clinched the Championship title.
Maresca replaced Dean Smith in the Leicester dugout following their relegation from the Premier League, and his Foxes side cantered to the title ahead of Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leeds United.
The Italian earned plaudits for some of the football Leicester played during the 2023/24 campaign, getting the best out of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who joined Chelsea in the summer, along with the likes of Jamie Vardy, Abdul Fatawu and Jannik Vestergaard.
But whilst supporters hoped the former Manchester City assistant would have managed them on their top-flight return, Maresca was snapped up by Chelsea after Mauricio Pochettino was sacked.
Since then, Maresca has often spoken about his former club, and when asked about them during Friday’s press conference, he made one confession.
Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
Enzo Maresca keeps in touch with the Leicester City players
Despite only spending close to a year in the King Power Stadium dugout, the Italian tactician created a close bond with the Leicester players, something they’re currently missing under Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Maresca once labelled Vardy as England’s best striker, telling of how highly he thought of his players, as he also lauded Harry Winks as ‘unbelievable’.
Unsurprisingly, despite jumping ship in the summer, Maresca revealed that he’s still ‘very close’ with the Leicester squad following their ‘fantastic’ season.
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“No, the only thing I can say is that I try to create a relationship with players where at the end, I feel very close to them and they probably feel very close to me,” the Chelsea boss said via Football.London.
“This is probably the only reason. I still speak with many of Leicester’s players because we had a fantastic season last year and I’m very close to some of them.”
Leicester travel to Chelsea this weekend, and Maresca could plunge Van Nistelrooy’s men deeper into trouble with a victory at Stamford Bridge.
Maresca convinced Ruud van Nistelrooy to take Leicester job
While supporters were fond of Maresca during the promotion-winning campaign, they feel the opposite about their current boss.
Fans called for Van Nistelrooy to be sacked after losing against West Ham, as it was their 11th league defeat in 12 games.
Most supporters are resigned to Leicester being relegated this term, seeing no chance of them closing the current five-point gap to 17th place Wolves.
Interestingly, it was Maresca who convinced Van Nistelrooy to take the Leicester job in the first place as the pair are good friends with each other.
“Ruud is a friend of mine,” Maresca said in December 2024.
“I said here before we faced Manchester United. He called me days ago before he took over there. We had a conversation and I told him Leicester is a fantastic club, first of all because there are fantastic people.
“For sure, it’s a good club. In the end, he decided to go. This was our conversation.”
He wasn’t to know it at the time, but Leicester replacing Steve Cooper with Van Nistelrooy has backfired, with relegation now staring them in the face.