Enzo Maresca has agreed to succeed Pep Guardiola at Manchester City this summer, but his arrival at the Etihad has been delayed amid a dispute with his former club, Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Maresca formally left Chelsea on January 1, 2026, after a turbulent spell that included a public intervention at a press conference in which he said a lack of support from “people in general” had contributed to the “worst 48 hours” of his time at Chelsea. The press conference followed a period in which he repeatedly clashed with the club’s ownership over transfers and team selection.<\/p>\n
Reports indicate City began monitoring Maresca in December while he remained under contract at Stamford Bridge. The Italian spoke to City while still employed by Chelsea and, under the terms of his agreement with the Blues, was required to disclose those talks to the club’s owners. The subsequent public row and Maresca’s departure came around two weeks later.<\/p>\n
Chelsea regard the exit as a turning point in a season that then deteriorated. The club’s problems were not confined to the pitch: his departure led to further financial consequences following the hiring and later dismissal of Liam Rosenior, for which compensation was paid.<\/p>\n
Because Maresca is no longer employed by Chelsea, the club accepts they cannot block his final negotiations with City. The initial contact, however, is the subject of Chelsea’s complaint. Chelsea did not give permission for City to speak with Maresca, a contracted employee, and The Guardian state Chelsea believe they have sufficient evidence to report City to the Premier League for an illegal approach.<\/p>\n
Chelsea are also said to be considering a separate claim against Maresca for breach of contract. Until those issues are resolved, City\u2019s confirmation of Maresca remains on hold and the move is being pushed back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea complaint over alleged illegal approach stalls Enzo Maresca’s move to Manchester City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1056],"tags":[1505,983],"class_list":["post-14890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-man-city","tag-accountability","tag-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}