‘Since day one’ – Maresca on the futures of Spurs targets Savinho and Marmoush | OneFootball

Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca says Savinho has wanted to leave the club “since day one” of his tenure amid interest from Tottenham.

Spurs have agreed an £85m deal for the Brazilian winger and Maresca admitted it is difficult to convince a player to stay once they have decided they want a new challenge.

“It’s quite clear that when players want to leave, for any reason, it’s complicated to convince them to stay, to change themselves,” Maresca said.

“It happened with Rodri, the same thing is happening with Savinho. Since day one, he is asking me to leave, so now we are waiting.

“It’s complicated when the players are thinking they want a new challenge or want to change. They want to go back to Spain or to play more minutes.

“It’s complicated for them to stay.”

Maresca also suggested a lack of regular playing time has been a factor behind several players wanting to leave City.

Omar Marmoush is also a Spurs target, while Nico Gonzalez is of interest to Newcastle.

“Apart from Rodri, they all have one thing in common, that they didn’t play a lot,” he said.

“They all work every day because they want to play and when they don’t play, probably they prefer to leave.

“The ones you mention, apart from Rodri, the rest are all players for different reasons that didn’t play a lot.”

Marmoush has not asked to leave yet

Maresca insists Marmoush’s situation is different to Savinho’s, however, with the City boss insisting the Egyptian has not yet asked to leave.

“Omar is still here, he’s still with us, it’s a different situation than Savinho, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“It’s always complicated when players leave and a player has to arrive. But we’ll see if Omar stays or what happens.

“For sure, we’re going to have more options if players leave. If they go out, some have to arrive.

“Savinho asked since day one to leave and Omar didn’t ask to leave since day one.

Asked whether Marmoush had now asked to leave, he added: “Not yet.”