Enzo Maresca to Manchester City: Big Windfall for Chelsea

Back on New Year's Day, the shock news landed that Enzo Maresca was leaving Stamford Bridge after 18 months at Chelsea. 

Although he was clearly getting frustrated at things, and not doing a very good job at doing so - there was only concrete talk of his potential departure late on on New Year's Eve 2025. So there was only 12 hours or so for the fans to process what was happening. And well, many people were out enjoying their New Year's Eve. Etc etc. 

To this day, it remained a mystery as to who made the decision. The standard "mutual consent" was given after it was made official, but anyone with any sense knows that, nine times out of ten, is not the case. 

Well, we may now finally have an idea. Indeed, as Italian journalist Gianluca di Marzio is reporting that Maresca is set to be confirmed as Pep Guardiola's successor at Manchester City, and that Chelsea are set to receive a windfall of 17.5 million pounds.

This implies that he left the club. Otherwise, why would Chelsea receive so much money after sacking him? His payout would not have been as high as that. Very interesting indeed. 

It is ironic as it seems like the relationship between Maresca and Chelsea began to broke down in the autumn of 2025, when he was said to have had talks with City over being Guardiola's potential successor, if he was to leave the Etihad at the end of the season, which he now ultimately has done. 

Back in the summer, Maresca made a public plea for a central defender, after the ACL injury Levi Colwill suffered. He was not given one, despite Chelsea arguably needing one even with Colwill fit, never mind without. There is no doubt that would have been incredibly frustrating for Maresca, who would have felt like a top 4 finish, UEFA Conference League and Club World Cup merited some backing in the market. 

It will be interesting to see how he does at City. He worked there before as manager of the development squad, where he worked with a number of current Chelsea players such as Cole Palmer and Liam Delap, as well as the linked Morgan Rogers of Aston Villa. He then also worked with the first team and was part of Guardiola's coaching staff as they won the treble in 22/23. 

There is a lot of animosity towards Maresca over his exit, and that will only further increase now it has been implied he walked out, but he does seem like a genuinely nice guy and is clearly a good coach, even if his football is a bit dull.