Enzo Maresca was asked a hypothetical question with no comfortable answer, and he did not flinch. Would he still have accepted the Manchester City job this summer if the Premier League’s independent commission had already found the club guilty on 114 of 115 financial charges?
“One hundred percent, yes. I know the organisation from years ago. I know how serious they are. I know they do the right things.”
Maresca spoke at his first news conference since the ruling landed on 29 September, when the commission concluded that City had inflated revenues and reduced costs by more than £900m across the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons, in part through what it called “sham” sponsorship contracts. The club was found guilty on all serious charges and has said it will appeal.
His answer stands apart from the carefully-worded “I trust the club” formulations most figures in Manchester City’s orbit have offered since the verdict. He was not asked how he feels about the ruling; he was asked whether he would make the same career move knowing it was coming. His reply attaches his own professional reputation to a club now awaiting a sanctions hearing that could, in the worst case, carry a points deduction heavy enough to send City down.
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He has been close to the organisation before. Maresca was assistant to Pep Guardiola during the 2022-23 Treble-winning season, and he returned this summer on a three-year deal to succeed Guardiola in the dugout after walking out of Chelsea mid-contract.
‘There is not another club in the world’
Asked why that past connection still outweighed what the commission had just published, Maresca pointed again at the people inside the building.
“I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined the club. There is not another club in the world where I would like to be.”
He declined to argue the merits of the ruling itself, telling reporters the moment for that would come later.
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“Probably the right moment to speak about that is when we’re going to win this appeal.”
He also brushed aside the suggestion that medals from the Guardiola era, including the one he collected as a coach, now sit under a cloud.
“Absolutely not.”
‘In case we’re in League One’
The sharpest line came when he was asked about the worst-case sanction for a club found guilty on 114 charges, with options ranging from fines through points deductions up to expulsion.
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“I won the Championship with Leicester, so in case we’re in League One, we’re going to see.”
It was delivered as a half-joke, but the subtext fit the rest of the news conference. He is not planning to walk, whatever the sanctions ruling says.
City are top of the Premier League going into Sunday’s trip to Anfield, and Maresca was asked whether the legal cloud is dragging focus away from the pitch. His answer there was shorter.
“It’s our job to try and control the noise.”
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