How do you replace Pep Guardiola?
Enzo Maresca is just starting to find out this summer, having been chosen as the Spaniard’s successor at Manchester City – returning after being Guardiola’s assistant during the club’s Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign.
Guardiola, one of the greatest managers of his generation, stepped down at the end of last season after leading City to 17 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and a Champions League victory.
Now, with his first pre-season as manager at the club nearing its end, Maresca sat down with the five travelling UK-based media in Seoul to discuss the challenges ahead.
“After 10 games, if we have got 10 points, 20 points, 30 points. People will be comparing it to Pep after 10 games, it doesn’t put pressure on me,” said Maresca.
“I have said many times while I was at Leicester or Chelsea, he is the best manager in the world over the last 15 or 20 years.
“When he started in Spain, everyone wanted to play like Barcelona, he moved to Germany everyone wanted to play like Bayern [Munich], he comes to England and everyone wants to play like City.
“Someone asked me if it’s the impossible job to follow him – maybe, but at the same time it’s a privilege.”
The ex-Chelsea boss says he met Guardiola in Barcelona a day before he officially signed as his replacement, as it was “useful” to pick his brains – having been at the club for a decade.
“We spent some hours together,” he said. “We had planned before the season finished here to spend some time in the summer holidays together.
“I like to go in empty sometimes to see things for myself – but he was here so long, he has his opinions. But also you have to arrive and see things for yourself, see all the picture.”
To signal a change for the players, Maresca has moved into the office of former assistant Pep Lijnders at City’s headquarters, next door to Guardiola’s old office – which has now been converted into a meeting room.
Shortly after his appointment as the City boss at the end of June, Maresca apologised to former club Chelsea for the “disruption” caused by his mid-season departure.
So what did he do during the intervening six months?
“I tried to enjoy a little bit more [time] with the family,” he says about his wife and four children.
“And everyone is talking about AI, so I want to understand how it works. So I did two masterclasses to understand it a little bit more and have more knowledge.”
Such has been the rise of artificial intelligence in everyday life, even Premier League managers are now beginning to dabble in it for those marginal gains.
But Maresca is going to need more than AI to make a success of his City career, having taken over from one of the greatest managers of his generation.
