What Man City’s Guardiola said to Maresca as he joined Leicester

Leicester City acquired Manchester City coach Enzo Maresca. The Italian has revealed some info of a chat with ‘Citizens’ head coach Pep Guardiola.

During the 2020-21 Campaign, Maresca was the head coach for the U21 Manchester City side which dominated and won the Premier League 2 trophy. The Italian departed for Parma, was sacked after only six months, and rejoined the Sky Blue EPL team as an assistant coach to the legendary Pep Guardiola.

Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City choice

At that time, both coaches knew the real intentions of Maresca. He wanted to be a manger in his own right. This is where Leicester comes into the picture. A relegated side, looking for a big refresh of style, going through a major rebuild, with the biggest budget in the EFL Championship – an ideal place for an aspiring head coach to prove themselves.

Reports state that the King Power club approached their new head coach after the departure of Brendan Rodgers. Maresca chose not to join at that time and to finish the season with treble winning Manchester City. Of course, that led to a whole fiasco of Jesse Marsch pulling out, of two assistant coaches leading the side for a couple matches, and the eventual appointment of Dean Smith.

What the Foxes boss has revealed

The Foxes hired a coach ‘Pep’ knew wanted to progress. According to those same reports, Maresca has revealed he spoke to Guardiola both during his reappointment at City, and the post-Rodgers period at Leicester.

"“I went there to help and work with him. But he always encouraged me to keep progressing… I left everything to one side until after the Champions League final“"

Leicester City were the second priority at the time. Maresca joined Manchester City to develop and progress his coaching and managerial capacity: Pep recognised this and supported him to go into management. Essentially, we got a coach Pep actively worked with to get Maresca into management.

Outside of that, the King Power club’s new head coach knows many in that monumental EPL side. Of course, having coached the U21’s and worked with those looking to break into the senior squad, the Italian was always going to be asked about the U21 players he would want to bring over.

"“One or two of them would do us nicely… City really do have a lot of young players… Top-quality players”"

Leicester would likely like to see a couple of those really good young players move from Manchester into the Foxes’ squad alongside their soon to be promoted U21 stars. Of course the boss cannot mention individual names, but we can certainly throw a brief list of names which could benefit Leicester city.

Who Maresca should wrestle from Guardiola

Pep has been supportive of the Italian head coach, and LCFC should look to using that positive working and personal relationship to pry a couple of players away. There are four players I think the Foxes should look towards.

Firstly, we have centre-back Taylor Harwood-Bellis. On loan with Burnley during their Championship campaign which saw them achieve promotion first time of asking, a player with that experience, that level of quality already obvious, should be a definite grab for the Foxes.

To join Harwood-Bellis, Finley Burns is an up and coming defender who could shine as a backup to the King Power’s senior squad. Certainly capable enough for the EFL Championship.

Beyond this, the final two are obvious: Carlos Borges – a versatile and prolific winger – and James McAtee or Cole Palmer. The likelihood of getting any of these players is pretty low, but loan to buys or signing up Borges should be realistic.