“Authority and a soft touch” – Player whose career was ‘ended’ by Enzo Maresca speaks out | OneFootball

One player who says his football career at one club was ended by Enzo Maresca has been speaking out on the Italian this week.

Maresca was obviously a payer before he got into management, and he played as a midfielder for quite a few clubs.

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The now 44-year-old began his career playing for West Brom, and he then moved to other clubs such as Juventus, Fiorentina,. Sevilla, and Malaga just to name a few.

He played for the Italian national team up to U21 level and then of course stepped into coaching under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

At West Brom, he played alongside Mark Briggs at the time. Briggs jokingly says it was Maresca who ended his West Brom career because he was better than him and took his minutes!

Briggs insights

Maresca is ruthless

He has conducted an interesting exclusive interview with GIVEMESPORT this week delivering some interesting insights into Maresca and what he was like as a player, and how that is now transitioning into what he is like as a manager.

Briggs played with the Chelsea boss during his time at West Brom, and could see his leadership qualities on show back then, even though the then-18-year-old Maresca was only just starting his senior career.

“Enzo kind of came in and ended my West Brom career,” said Briggs with a wry smile. “He had so much quality in midfield, so I fell down the pecking order. I remember his first training session. Our captain, Sean Flynn, was one of our oldest and most experienced players. And we played a small-sided game and Enzo absolutely crushed him. And everybody kind of went, ‘Wow, who is this young boy from Italy?’.

“Enzo was ruthless as a player, and I think he’s the same as a head coach. He’s gone to Chelsea, knows what he wants and he’s been decisive in changing the culture and getting the players to step in line. The quality has always been there at Chelsea, but I am not sure the ruthlessness has.

“Enzo is also very adaptable and personable, qualities you need as a head coach. To be honest, his English wasn’t that great at West Brom, but he was always trying to crack jokes, and you can see now he’s close to his Chelsea players. It was the same at Leicester as well. Gone are the days of distant boot camp-like coaches. You need both authority and a soft touch, and for the players to feel like, as a manager, you are constantly part of the group.”