Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is high among the candidates Manchester City are considering in case Pep Guardiola exits the Etihad Stadium next summer.
According to numerous well-placed sources outside the club — speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships — there is a growing anticipation of this being Guardiola’s last season at City. A firm decision will likely be made closer to the campaign finishing.
In the meantime, City are advancing contingency planning for the possibility of that outcome materialising.
Having previously worked there at youth and senior levels, Maresca retains admirers in the hierarchy and is expected to figure prominently if a vacancy arises, although he would not be the only contender.
Guardiola is contracted until June 2027, thanks to a new deal signed in November 2024 which extended terms that were approaching their final six months.
It gives both parties time and, historically, the 54-year-old has left it relatively late before determining his future.
The Athletic has received no suggestion that the more than 100 Premier League charges against City, which they vehemently deny, have any bearing on Guardiola’s situation.
Maresca (centre left) was part of Guardiola’s (centre right) staff at City during the 2021-22 season (Lindsey Parnaby/AFP via Getty Images)
Maresca is well known to the 10-time English champions from two spells either side of a stint as head coach of Italian club Parma. He led City’s Under-21s for the 2020-21 season and returned as a first-team assistant in the summer of 2022.
The Italian’s Chelsea contract runs through to 2029, with an option to extend by 12 months, although uncertainty has arisen in recent days after he called the build-up to Saturday’s home victory over Everton “the worst 48 hours since I joined the club, because many people didn’t support us”.
He declined to elaborate during subsequent news conferences but has repeatedly spoken of an affinity with the Chelsea fans, most recently following Tuesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final win at Cardiff City.
Maresca, 45, switched representatives to the so-called ‘super agent’ Jorge Mendes in the Autumn, a move that will be designed to support his journey in management.
Speaking to ESPN Brasil in May, Guardiola pledged to take a break from football upon departing City, who he joined almost a decade ago.
“After my contract with City, I’m going to stop,” the Catalan said. “I am sure. I don’t know if I’m going to retire, but I’m going to take a break.”
Guardiola was quizzed on the topic again in October, when former assistant Carles Planchart suggested he should step back from the game.
“At the moment, I think I have the energy with my players to simply make a better season than last season,” Guardiola explained. “There is the margin that we can do better in many aspects and that gives me the energy that it’s not job done. It’s completely unfinished business. That’s why I am here.”
Operating under Guardiola in 2022-23 preceded Maresca’s appointment by Leicester City and he immediately oversaw their promotion to the Premier League, only to then join Chelsea as Mauricio Pochettino’s replacement.
They finished fourth in the top-flight and lifted the Conference League and expanded Club World Cup titles at the first attempt.
Chelsea currently occupy fourth place in the table after 16 games, while Guardiola’s City are six points ahead of them in second.
City’s interest raises questions at Chelsea
Analysis by Chelsea correspondent Simon Johnson
City’s interest in Maresca will lay down a challenge to Chelsea over how much they want him to stay in charge.
They have made progress under Maresca since he was lured away from Leicester to take charge in June 2024, securing Champions League qualification for the first time since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium took over three years ago, as well as those two cup wins. The club will also believe they built a squad for Maresca to achieve this.
A sign of how Maresca’s status in the game is on the rise came when Guardiola lavished him with praise unprompted during a press conference just a few weeks ago. He described him as “one of the best managers in the world” and added: “The job he has done at Chelsea does not get enough credit.”
That is quite a ringing endorsement for someone now being considered as his potential successor.
It has not all been plain sailing in the Italian’s second season in charge, though. Chelsea have had disciplinary issues and their form has been inconsistent. Yet they are still competing on all four fronts — the Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup — nearly halfway into the campaign.
Maresca also made headlines after the 2-0 win over Everton by admitting he had just experienced the worst 48 hours of his career, which prompted speculation that all is not well between him and the hierarchy.
The optics of losing Maresca to a domestic rival is an added equation to how Chelsea might react to this development.
Chelsea have put a structure in place which means their overall strategy is not disrupted too much by a change of coach and have always planned to review how the club are progressing, including Maresca, at end of his second season.
Starting with a new coach is always a risk, however — and Chelsea fans made it clear they are behind Maresca by singing his name after the win over Cardiff.
Who can follow City’s most successful manager?
Analysis by Manchester City correspondent Jordan Campbell
It is one thing for a club to lose its most successful manager in history. It is quite another to lose a manager who has reshaped a league and redefined a sport.
That is the weight Manchester City will need to bear when Pep Guardiola leaves. If it is to be this summer they will be forced to confront a future that will likely be impossible to live up to its recent past. The 100-point season in 2017-18, the unprecedented four consecutive league titles and the treble in 2022-23.
That is a complicated space to occupy for fans and an incoming manager. Where do they possibly go?
It will be an emotional parting. Guardiola has fallen in love with English football culture and City fans understandably see him as a messiah. He has changed the face of the club and how it is perceived on the world stage.
But this day was always going to come and the only surprise is that he is still here in his tenth season. There have been occasions when Guardiola has contemplated leaving but he has always found another challenge to fuel his obsession.
Usurping Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea to the title this season may go down as the Spaniard’s greatest achievement yet, given huge figures in Ederson, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne all left this year.
If he cannot guide his new-look side to the title he will still leave with a haul of 18 trophies but without a league title in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career. It would not feel like a befitting exit, even for a manager who has dominated the last decade.
But perhaps it would offer the headroom for a new chapter to emerge without the same pressure to maintain a level of dominance that had not been witnessed before in the Premier League.
With Bernardo Silva and John Stones out of contract at the end of the season — the only two players remaining from his first title win in 2017-18 — all three leaving would signal the closing of the Guardiola chapter.
It is as monumental an exit as imaginable but it is not at all bad.
City have a front two consisting of a homegrown hero in Phil Foden and Erling Haaland, both 25, to lead the next chapter.
