The Chosen Heir: Why Manchester City Turned to Enzo Maresca Who’s Tasked With Replacing the Irreplaceable

After three years away, Enzo Maresca has returned to Manchester City.

The Italian, who served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant during City’s Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign, has succeeded the Spaniard as head coach on a three-year deal. His appointment underlines a rapid rise in management that began only in 2021 with his first senior head coach role. He now faces the unenviable task of following a manager who won 20 trophies in a decade at the Etihad Stadium.

Maresca has called the job a “huge challenge” — and he means it as a compliment.

“Probably the reason why I am here is also because the idea from the club is to maintain the same style of football, the same idea,” he said on his appointment. “And we are going to try to do the most important thing in football which is try to win, to achieve important things. Then the day-by-day is also going to dictate the way I will work.”

Guardiola had previously described Maresca as “one of the best managers in the world.” So what convinced the club’s hierarchy? And what can City supporters expect when pre-season begins?

Why Maresca Was Man City’s Chosen One

Maresca is part Italian, part Spanish in his approach to both coaching and life — and understanding that duality is the starting point for understanding the appointment.

His Spanish influence runs deep. During his playing career at Sevilla and Málaga, he faced a Barcelona side regarded by many as the greatest club team of all time. Those encounters opened his eyes to a new way of playing and helped spark the trend for technical, possession-based football that has defined elite European football ever since.

It was in Spain that Maresca also met his trusted assistant Willy Caballero, where his children were born, and where Spanish became the dominant language at home. It was also his “football father” — former Manchester City and West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini — who identified during Maresca’s playing days that he possessed the qualities to become a coach.

His Italian footballing education was equally significant. He played under Carlo Ancelotti and Marcelo Lippi, two of the most decorated managers in the history of the game. Maresca absorbed different tactical traditions from different generations of coach, and that breadth of influence shaped the hybrid philosophy he has developed as a manager.

Maresca’s Coaching Influences

The appointment also carried the explicit blessing of those who know Maresca best. City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was open about the reasoning: “He is one of Pep’s assistants at one point in his career so definitely he will tell you he is going to have taken a lot of inspiration in the philosophy of Pep, and you see that in his football. But he has also evolved his own philosophy. I think Enzo brings a lot to this club.”

Maresca and Guardiola are understood to be in regular contact, and those close to both men say the Italian would not have been chosen without the Spaniard’s knowledge and endorsement. It is also understood that outgoing sporting director Txiki Begiristain recommended Maresca as Guardiola’s heir when handing over his responsibilities to incoming director Hugo Viana.

Khaldoon added: “I think the fans will appreciate him as a manager, his football philosophy, his football and how the team is going to perform and go from strength to strength with Maresca’s leadership. This is a big challenge — this scares off many people. The beauty with Enzo is he actually wants that challenge, he loves that challenge.”

The Treble Season: Maresca’s Influence Under Guardiola

Maresca’s single season as Guardiola’s assistant at City was not a passive experience. He was described by those within the club as an influential figure, with Guardiola regularly leaning on him for tactical innovations.

The most prominent example came during that Treble-winning campaign, when Guardiola rebranded England defender John Stones as a central midfielder. Stones played a starring role in the Champions League final victory against Inter Milan in Istanbul. Those who were inside City’s training ground during that period credit Maresca as a significant contributor to that tactical evolution.

Before his assistant role, Maresca had led City’s Elite Development Squad in the 2020-21 season, leaving a lasting impression on the academy structure.

Gareth Taylor, who now leads Liverpool’s women’s team and spent time alongside Maresca at City, told BBC Sport: “Enzo brought something a little bit different. He certainly had more freedom in the way he set up his teams, because previously most coaches in that environment were strictly told to follow a specific game model. It was as if no-one had that conversation with Enzo, but it was positive because you have to evolve — you cannot stand still tactically. At City, as long as you could back up your rationale, it would be listened to and potentially adopted.”

Chess, Tactics and Philosophy: How Maresca Thinks About Football

To understand Maresca as a coach, it helps to understand how he thinks about the game at its most abstract level.

During his studies at Italy’s Coverciano coaching institute, he wrote a 7,000-word thesis on the similarities between football and chess, citing a famous 1991 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi as his central reference point. The comparison was not superficial — Maresca views positional control, spatial manipulation and sequenced decision-making as the foundations of football, in the same way a grandmaster approaches the board.

He sees himself as a tactician who demands control. Almost always lining up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, Maresca wants his teams to dominate possession, prevent counter-attacks and assert themselves territorially. The parallels with Guardiola’s philosophy are obvious and intentional.

Maresca’s Core Tactical Principles

At both Chelsea and Leicester City, Maresca faced criticism during bad runs of form for overly slow build-up play. His response has typically been to introduce fluid positional rotations to break defensive structures rather than increasing directness.

At the end of his Chelsea tenure, this produced some inventive solutions. Marc Cucurella repeatedly drifted into advanced midfield positions to arrive effectively in the box after overlapping movements. In the Club World Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain in New Jersey — a 3-0 win — Maresca introduced an asymmetric overlapping right-back in Malo Gusto, pinning PSG left-back Nuno Mendes back and creating space for Cole Palmer in central areas. It was precisely the kind of positional innovation that had characterised Guardiola’s best City sides.

Like Guardiola, Maresca draws ideas from beyond football. He is in regular dialogue with Julio Velasco, an Argentine-Italian volleyball coach, and basketball coach Ettore Messina. He has been studying artificial intelligence during his period away from management. While locked in legal discussions with Chelsea over compensation, he has reportedly been reading French philosopher René Descartes and the book Football and Chess by Adam Wells.

What City Fans Can Expect: Style, Personnel and Priorities

City players are scheduled to report for pre-season on 20 July, with those involved at the World Cup given additional time to recover. Maresca will have a full squad at his disposal shortly after, and several immediate priorities will define his opening weeks.

Maresca’s Expected Immediate Priorities at City

The club record £116 million arrival of Elliot Anderson — the England midfielder who was central to England’s World Cup 2026 group-stage performances — is expected to be confirmed imminently. City will then turn their attention to the right-back position, with Gusto’s name prominent in discussions. The 18-year-old Moroccan midfield sensation Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille has also been linked as a longer-term investment.

The most strategically significant issue is Rodri’s contract situation. The Spain captain, arguably the most influential defensive midfielder in world football, enters the final year of his deal at the Etihad. Tying him down to a new contract will be among Maresca’s earliest and most pressing challenges.

In goal, Maresca’s tactical requirements are specific. He demands a goalkeeper who is comfortable with the ball at their feet and capable of functioning as an additional outfield option during build-up. Whether Gianluigi Donnarumma retains his place or James Trafford is given the opportunity to establish himself as first choice will be one of the more closely watched decisions of the pre-season period.

Bouncing Back From an Acrimonious Chelsea Exit

Maresca’s departure from Stamford Bridge was complicated and, ultimately, damaging for both parties.

His relationship with Chelsea’s hierarchy deteriorated during his second season, leading to an exit that the club privately accepts undermined the remainder of their campaign. Chelsea finished tenth in the Premier League, losing on the final day of the season to Sunderland. They received £17 million in compensation from City for Maresca’s services.

Despite the manner of his exit, his Chelsea record tells a more positive story than the final chapter suggested.

Maresca’s Record at Chelsea

He is the only Chelsea manager to qualify for the Champions League since BlueCo purchased the club in 2022. He won the Club World Cup and the Conference League in his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge. The collapse of his second season does not erase those achievements, and the manner of his exit — walking towards a return to City — reflects a manager who knew where he wanted to be.

With those he worked with, Maresca was a largely popular figure at Chelsea. His relationship with the playing group remained strong even as the connection with the board deteriorated. When pressed publicly on his management decisions — most notably when asked why winger Noni Madueke had been dropped — he replied simply that it was a “technical decision.” Terse to outsiders; direct and consistent to those inside the building.

He can often come across as distant when dealing with the media. With his players, that distance disappears.

His return to Stamford Bridge next season as an opposing manager will be one of the more compelling subplots of the Premier League campaign. Chelsea’s official response and the reaction from supporters — where opinion on his tenure remains genuinely divided — will be worth watching.

The Size of the Task

Twenty trophies in ten years. That is the standard Guardiola set. No manager in the history of English football has succeeded at a club in quite such a comprehensively dominant fashion, and no successor has faced quite such a benchmark.

Maresca is aware of what he is stepping into. He has described it as a huge challenge, acknowledged that the club’s expectation is continuity of philosophy, and accepted that results will validate or undermine everything he does tactically and in the transfer market.

Guardiola’s City Legacy vs Maresca’s Starting Point

What works in Maresca’s favour is that he is not being asked to rebuild. He is being asked to maintain. The squad, the philosophy, the infrastructure and the culture are all established. His job is to sustain a level that Guardiola spent a decade constructing — and to do so while stamping his own authority on a squad of players accustomed to working with one of the greatest managers the game has produced.

Khaldoon believes he can do it. Guardiola believes he can do it. The club’s senior leadership believe he can do it. The thesis on chess and football, the studies in AI, the conversations with volleyball coaches — these are the habits of a man who does not intend to simply maintain what exists. They are the habits of someone who wants to improve it.

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