Why continuity candidate Enzo Maresca could be Manchester City’s ideal successor to Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca represents Manchester City’s continuity candidate to take over from Pep Guardiola, and not merely because he has been both manager of their Elite Development Squad and assistant manager to the Catalan. Maresca’s managerial lineage on the blue half of Manchester, however, stretches back before Guardiola and his decade in charge. The Italian may forever be overshadowed by his predecessor at City, but is influenced by the man who was cast aside for Guardiola.

Maresca played for Manuel Pellegrini, at Malaga, and coached under him, at West Ham. Pellegrini may be the forgotten Premier League title-winner, his reign feeling something of an interregnum while City waited for Guardiola. City may settle for something similar, though: if Maresca can stay three years and make his side champions once to prove there is life under Guardiola. For those who take over from the greats, the task in part is to be Arne Slot, rather than the David Moyes of Manchester United or the Unai Emery of Arsenal; or the Slot of last season, anyway.

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Enzo Maresca served as a member of Manchester City’s coaching staff before being appointed at Leicester (PA Wire)

Maresca’s place in City’s contingency planning had been apparent for months; the breakdown of his relationship with Chelsea stemmed in part from telling the London club that he had talked to City, even as it was not yet clear if there would be a vacancy at the Etihad Stadium this summer.

That willingness to prioritise City may have endeared him to them and irritated Chelsea; it may have also allowed Maresca a smooth succession when three others who have studied at the school of Guardiola seem to have better credentials. But Mikel Arteta, his initial assistant at City, has built his own empire at Arsenal and Vincent Kompany has a popularity at Bayern Munich; the apprentices now arguably have finer sides than the departing master.

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Pep Guardiola has watched one apprentice in Mikel Arteta become a Premier League master (Getty)

Meanwhile, any enquiry to Xabi Alonso in autumn would surely have met with the response that the Basque was Real Madrid manager. Now he is instead part of the succession to Maresca at Chelsea.

Alonso’s exploits at Bayer Leverkusen give him a stronger CV. Which is another way of saying Maresca could seem fortunate to get the City job; unless, anyway, the eventual outcome of the Premier League’s case and the increasingly infamous 115 charges makes it a poisoned chalice.

His managerial career began with 14 games at Parma, sandwiched by two spells at City. He won the Championship with Leicester, a feat that may look better given their subsequent unravelling. It was their only successful season in the last four, with the other three all terrible, and he their only good appointment in that time. Yet he was largely unloved by fans. Nor did many Chelsea supporters enjoy his football.

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Enzo Maresca's time at Chelsea included a Club World Cup success (Getty)

Much of what Maresca did at Stamford Bridge could be called par, neither underachieving nor overachieving: finishing fourth last season, leaving them in fifth this, winning the Conference League when their resources dwarfed everyone else’s. The undoubted triumph was winning the Club World Cup, outwitting Luis Enrique in the final and eviscerating an all-conquering Paris Saint-Germain.

A glimpse of what could lie ahead at City? Perhaps. Maresca was by Guardiola’s side in his greatest season in Manchester, the treble campaign of 2022-23; then they demolished Bayern and Real Madrid in the Champions League.

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There is reason to believe that Enzo Maresca could be a good successor to Pep Guardiola (PA)

But that was a very different side. After the turnover in the last 18 months, Maresca has worked with relatively few of the squad he will inherit: with Bernardo Silva and John Stones going, it will only really be Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Rodri, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake. It is notable, too, that the director of football now is Hugo Viana and not, as it was in his time at the Etihad Stadium, Txiki Begiristain.

That may have a pertinence given the way Maresca fell out with Chelsea. His seeming meltdown is nevertheless explained in part by the difficulties of working for BlueCo; that, he may argue, was the impossible job, not replacing Guardiola. In his defence, too, he has fared better than the other appointments under Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital: Mauricio Pochettino did reasonably but Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior were abject failures.

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Enzo Maresca’s time at Chelsea is tricky to assess (Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Maresca seems to have had a credibility in the dressing room. Chelsea’s Spanish-speaking players certainly preferred him to Rosenior, as the comments of Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella indicated. Results deteriorated after his departure, if not immediately.

His appointment could be a sign the structure of the City Football Group is working or a recognition that anyone who followed Guardiola risked looking like a downgrade. His other two clubs have taken contrasting approaches. Barcelona promoted the ultimate insider, his assistant Tito Vilanova. Bayern brought in Carlo Ancelotti, then only a treble Champions League winner.

Each won their domestic league at the first attempt under Guardiola’s replacement. Neither league was the Premier League. Maresca will go into a post-Pep league where other leading managers will include another of his old assistants (Arteta), one of his former players (Alonso), one very influenced by him (Slot) and one who Guardiola openly admires (Roberto De Zerbi, should Tottenham stay up). City have picked the man once nicknamed ‘Diet Pep’ but they are losing the full version.