Pep Guardiola urges Chelsea to give Enzo Maresca time as manager

City manager says former assistant will succeed at new club only if owners show patience that previous coaches were denied

Pep Guardiola has urged Chelsea to give Enzo Maresca time ahead of taking on his former assistant in the Italian’s first match as a Premier League manager.
Maresca has been compared to Guardiola after working under the Manchester City manager for two years and helping him to win the Treble, before going on to lift the Championship title with Leicester.
Guardiola insists his ex-colleague is his own coach but also hopes Chelsea will give him time to build a team, with no manager having lasted more than a season in the Clearlake Capital era. Maresca is the fifth manager, including an interim, to take charge of the team in the two years of their ownership.
“My advice is give him time,” said Guardiola. “If the owners from Chelsea accept my advice, give him time and it will work. All the managers need time. I don’t know if Chelsea is the place to do this but give him time and he will work. That is my feeling.”
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Chelsea have also been among the busiest teams in the transfer market since their change of ownership, with many of their signings former City players, such as Cole Palmer, Raheem Sterling and Romeo Lavia.
“You see the depth of the squad? It’s a lot but the reason why they do it, it is not my business,” said Guardiola. “They can do what they believe is the best for the team. I am pretty sure they do it but if you see the depth of the squad, they have more than 40 players.”
City will head to Chelsea on Sunday without Spain midfielder Rodri, who returned to training in midweek after reaching the Euro 2024 final and getting extra time off to recover from a muscle injury suffered in that match. England players Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden could be available.
“Rodri didn’t train, so no chance,” said Guardiola. “I didn’t see him yet. I think he feels good but he has to return to training. We will see when he starts to move his body, how does he feel.”
Guardiola has also left the door open slightly for Joao Cancelo to be part of the squad this season having been loaned to Bayern Munich and Barcelona in the past two seasons.
“In training we say ‘hi’, we talk and train and that’s all,” Guardiola said. “About what is going to happen here, it depends on his agents and the club and, in the end, if he has to stay we will treat him like all the other players since I came here, with respect and try to take the best with his amount of huge qualities he has.
“I never doubt about his qualities one second but I don’t know what is going to happen. He’s training with us. We will see, maybe stay, maybe go on loan. I don’t know yet. He’s training with us, behaving really well in the training sessions. He loves to play football. We will see.”