There have been few more successful reins than Pep Guardiola’s at Manchester City in the history of football. The Catalan coach has won six Premier League titles, five FA Cups, five EFL Cups, the Champions League, and the Club World Cup. His exit brings several questions – not least whether leading candidate Enzo Maresca will be up to the task – after City’s rivals Arsenal and Manchester United struggled to replace their own legendary managers.
Will Maresca lead City to more success?
Maresca will point to his own Club World Cup (as well as a Conference League trophy) as a measure of success at Chelsea, but the Italian left in less than ideal circumstances. After rumours of him negotiating with City, Maresca parted ways with the world champions amid disagreements with the medical staff and performance departments.
At the time, Sky Sports and other outlets reported that Maresca walked away from the job, rather than having his contract terminated. But BBC’s Chelsea reporter Nizaar Kinsella has said the club are currently “exploring their legal options”, believing that either City or Maresca should pay them compensation.
Maresca’s preference for patient build up play and fluid attack will be familiar to City fans – as will the 4-2-3-1, which they have seen plenty under Guardiola after his evolution from the famous 4-3-3 with “free 8s” Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva. Like Guardiola, Maresca has often encouraged the line of ‘3’ to rotate – this could work well for Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki, Omar Marmoush, and Phil Foden. Arguably City’s most adaptable player, Bernardo Silva, is departing along with Guardiola.
Many countries at World Cup 2026 will be playing their own 4-2-3-1s, though they’re unlikely to be as fluid as Maresca’s given the limited time that international sides train and play matches together. Fans who are holidaying abroad or travelling for the World Cup this summer can easily find a VPN to watch their own country’s broadcasts. You can install PIA on your Mac in a few minutes and connect to fast servers in 90 countries.
City’s first few matches of the 2026-27 season may be enough to tell us whether Maresca (or whoever does take over) is planning revolution or a less dramatic evolution. If it is Maresca, it is unlikely to be a major overhaul of the playing style. He learned his trade as the manager of City’s Elite Development Squad, before taking his first senior coaching job at Parma. Maresca was then assistant to Guardiola for the 2022-23 season, and his work there helped earn him a contract with Leicester. Maresca led the club to a Championship title in his first season.
Will City spend big?
Last summer was a big one with Antoine Semenyo, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Rayan Cherki the headline arrivals; they were followed by Marc Guehi in January.
The previous year was a bit quieter with Omar Marmoush, Savinho and Abdukodir Khusanov the main signings. Vitor Reis may prove just as important – he’s only 20 and has been on loan at Girona.
“Insiders” at the club have reportedly confirmed Elliot Anderson is close to signing (according to The i Paper and others). Anderson could theoretically fill the Bernardo Silva shaped hole but the Nottingham Forest star’s game is based more on physicality and he does not quite have the technical and tactical qualities of Silva.
City will bank £13m due to Manu Akanji playing in 50%+ of Serie A games for Inter, who the defender will now sign for permanently.