Manchester City have announced the appointment of Enzo Maresca. His mid-season resignation from Chelsea prompted a formal response from the Blues and matching statements from Maresca and City.<\/p>\n
A Chelsea statement set out the club\u2019s account in detail:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Autumn last year, the Club was informed by our former Head Coach that there might be an opportunity for him to succeed Pep Guardiola at the end of the season,\u201d a Chelsea statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became clear to us that it was his strong desire to succeed Guardiola and that he was fully committed to pursuing the opportunity, despite the fact he was under a long-term contract which he had no right to terminate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn December 2025, our Head Coach unexpectedly and abruptly resigned from his position. Obviously, we felt let down as we believed that his head and heart were focused on another club and another opportunity, despite having just arrived at Chelsea the year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo club wants to change its head coach midway through a season. However, in light of his decision not to continue fulfilling his responsibilities through to the end of the season, the Club was left with no choice but to protect our players, our supporters, and the Badge and accept his resignation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the circumstances and given the mutual respect between clubs, a confidential settlement has been reached with Manchester City , which includes the payment of compensation. A confidential settlement has also been reached with the former Head Coach under which he will pay compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to next season, in Xabi Alonso, we have a Manager who has an exceptional football mind and is a professional of the highest integrity. He has all the attributes to deliver the success the Club\u2019s supporters deserve and expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca issued his own statement addressing his departure and his move to City:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of December 2025, I made the difficult decision to leave Chelsea,\u201d he reflected. \u201cThe decision was only mine. My resignation from Chelsea opened a path for me to join Manchester City, which is a club I knew very well. I am ecstatic that I have now joined Manchester City.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise that my departure from Chelsea in the middle of the season caused disruption for the club and I apologize for that. It was neither my intention nor my wish. I was treated well by everyone at Chelsea and together we achieved great success and memories that I will always treasure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful to the club, the owners and the fans for giving me the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
City also commented on the discussions that preceded the appointment:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can confirm that confidential conversations took place between select representatives of City and Enzo Maresca in Autumn and Winter of 2025, while he was Chelsea FC\u2019s Head Coach, regarding the possibility of him returning to City in a transitional leadership coaching capacity should Pep Guardiola decide to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge Chelsea\u2019s statement regarding the context of Enzo\u2019s departure from Chelesa. We also acknowledge the context in which permission for discussions was given, and we recognize that his departure mid-season was disruptive to Chelsea\u2019s season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca joins Manchester City after a mid-season Chelsea resignation; confidential settlements made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1056,969],"tags":[1505,983],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-man-city","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","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=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}