Hugo Viana receives clear Ryan McAidoo future message from Enzo Maresca after five-star Inter cameo | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has delivered a clear and public endorsement of academy winger Ryan McAidoo following Manchester City’s penalty defeat to Inter Milan in Hong Kong, in what amounts to a pointed message to Hugo Viana about the role he envisages for the teenager in his long-term plans.

The 18-year-old impressed in City’s first pre-season fixture of Maresca’s tenure at the Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday, performing alongside Antoine Semenyo and Savinho in a front line that carried genuine attacking threat despite the eventual penalty shootout defeat to the Italian champions.

Maresca’s public identification of McAidoo as a player who fits his preferred profile of wide attacker carries particular significance in the context of a summer in which Savinho has been the subject of advanced interest from Tottenham Hotspur – with the Brazilian winger edging closer to a departure that would leave City short of proven wide options heading into competitive football.

The manager had previously outlined his desire for wingers who can “dribble and create chances with passes” as the priority profile for any wide attacking additions this summer, and McAidoo’s performance in Hong Kong appears to have reinforced his standing within that search rather than diminishing it.

For Viana, Maresca’s verdict from the post-match press conference represents an explicit instruction rather than a casual observation – a manager communicating publicly and directly what he values and where he intends to look for solutions to his attacking requirements in the months ahead.

Maresca: “Since day one I said he is the kind of winger I love”

Speaking at his post-match press conference following the penalty defeat to Inter Milan in Hong Kong, Maresca was unambiguous in his endorsement of McAidoo and explicit about the qualities that mark him out as a player aligned with his own attacking philosophy.

“We were speaking with the club and since day one I said he is the kind of winger I love,” said Maresca. “He is very aggressive one v one, he always tries, makes the right decisions. But he is very young and he needs the right path. If you look in the last clubs I was part of, I always ask for those kinds of wingers.”

“You have to do the right process but then you need players wide who can beat players one v one. Antoine, Savinho and Ryan were very good. We need to add more solutions for them and they will be better.”

What does Maresca’s McAidoo verdict mean for Man City’s wide attacking plans?

Maresca’s specific and repeated insistence on wingers who can beat players one-on-one aligns precisely with McAidoo’s profile – a left-footed, explosive right winger whose dribbling directness made him one of the most talked-about academy players in the country before his senior debut in January’s FA Cup victory over Exeter City.

The endorsement arrives at a moment when Tottenham are pushing hard to sign Savinho and the depth of City’s wide options is a genuine source of concern heading into the new season – with the manager’s words suggesting he views McAidoo as part of the solution rather than a development asset to be loaned or sold as part of incoming business elsewhere.

City are simultaneously pursuing wider attacking targets in the senior market, with multiple names having been discussed in the context of Viana’s summer planning across the forward line, and Maresca’s qualifier – “he is very young and he needs the right path” – suggests the manager is thinking carefully about how to manage McAidoo’s development alongside, rather than instead of, the senior additions still being sought.

Whether the “right path” Maresca envisions for McAidoo involves a regular role within the first-team squad, a structured loan or a phased introduction is the question that will shape one of the more interesting developmental stories of the new season at the Etihad Stadium – but the manager’s public declaration that the teenager fits the profile he has sought at every previous club is as clear a statement of belief as any 18-year-old in academy football could hope to receive.