Relaxed and tanned, Enzo Maresca offered a warm note with his first words to the media as the manager of Manchester City, who must somehow follow the generational Pep Guardiola. “Before we start, I would like to send a message and a big hug to Kevin Keegan’s family for this moment,” said the Italian in tribute to a football legend, following his death on Monday.
Keegan, of course, was a former City manager who had at Newcastle famously locked horns with Sir Alex Ferguson when he led Manchester United, the fierce rivals of Maresca’s new team. When the 46-year-old, sat on the dais occupied for 10 mostly glittering years by Guardiola, offered an unsolicited reference to Ferguson – and Arsène Wenger – you could see he comprehended the mammoth task before him.
How do you follow the man who claimed 20 trophies in a decade and who ranks alongside Ferguson? Well, by mentioning, and so trying to tame, the elephant in the room. “The history of the manager with many years in the same club always struggled a little bit. After Sir Alex, after Arsène,” Maresca said. “But also, it’s a challenge to try to do the right things immediately for this organisation, for the fans, for everyone.”
Speaking in front of a giant “Welcome back Enzo” billboard, a reference to his previous leading of City’s elite development squad in 2020-21 as well as his stint as Guardiola’s assistant manager in the 2022-23 treble season, Maresca would have been aware the font of goodwill will not prove deep if results go south. Certainly not from that most fickle of constituencies – fans. So Maresca cutely pointed to the patience of City’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, and his executive. “This club has had three managers in 17 years,” he said. “This is not normal, so this is one of the things that I’m confident we can do a great job and continue to do the job that has been done in the last years. Roberto [Mancini] was here, then Manuel [Pellegrini] and then Pep – for 10 years.”
Mancini’s tenure began in December 2009, ended with his sacking in May 2013, and was angst-ridden: anathema to al-Mubarak and his chief executive, Ferran Soriano. If Mancini could be volatile, Pellegrini proved serene, and Guardiola was, simply, a genius. Al-Mubarak’s and Soriano’s experience of Maresca during his two previous seasons at City obviously convinced them that he is the full package: an accomplished football man who is of equable character. Yet Maresca’s exit from his previous post at Chelsea on New Year’s Day ended with an apology from him, and City paying the west London club £17m in compensation. Maresca’s shutters came down for the first – and only – time when his conduct was raised. “I feel quite lucky in terms of my former clubs – Leicester, Chelsea – I think we did a great job,” he said. “In both clubs, the identity of the team was clear, the success of the team was clear, and I feel very lucky to be part of these clubs. But now we are here today. That is the most important thing, just about City. And nothing to add.”
Maresca made Leicester Championship champions and the next season took Chelsea to fourth in the Premier League and a Conference League triumph before claiming the Fifa Club World Cup last summer, a 3-0 evisceration of Paris Saint-Germain in the final a calling card that may well have sealed the City job.
He talked of “titles” for the coming season. To aid this mission, Maresca has Elliot Anderson, a £116m buy from Nottingham Forest, to patrol midfield, and potentially Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi, who shone for Morocco at the World Cup, to further bolster this department. He also retains an interest in Malo Gusto, one of his right-backs when at Chelsea, and if Omar Marmoush leaves, the market will be entered for a similar, pacy forward.
One player Maresca certainly does not wish to lose is the peerless Rodri, who lifted the World Cup for Spain on Sunday and received the Golden Ball, and whose control of a contest in the ever-more frantic domestic game is priceless. The 30-year-old will have surgery on a back problem on Monday. The word is it is not too serious, though he will miss out when City host Bournemouth on the opening weekend of the season. The more important date is 1 September, when the transfer window closes: will Real Madrid have made a move for a footballer who has a year left on his terms and is declining to sign the new deal offered by City?
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Of more immediate concern for Maresca is flying out on Tuesday for a pre‑season tour of Asia that features matches with Inter in Hong Kong and K-League All Stars and Atlético Madrid in Seoul. For the trip Maresca will have back City’s A-listers who exited the World Cup early, including Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic and Abdukodir Khusanov.
“I’m working at the moment with many young players,” he said. “That is always good because they are full of energy and some of them are very good. The last group of players are going to join three or four days before the Community Shield and we will have all the squad.” After that Cardiff game with Arsenal on Sunday 16 August, the bid to successfully succeed Guardiola begins in earnest.
“You need to adapt, evolve,” Maresca added in reference to his playing style. “Set pieces, man to man – it’s a little bit the direction where football is going. We managers, it’s our duty to find solutions.” We are about to discover how good he is at this.