Manchester City manager Maresca ‘trusts’ club but refuses to be drawn on future
Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has refused to discuss his future in the job until after the outcome of the club’s appeal against Premier League financial rule breaches is known.
Addressing for the first time the bombshell findings of an independent commission which threaten City’s top-flight status and their legacy as England’s most successful team of the last 15 years, Maresca insisted he had total “trust” in the club and its leadership.
But the Italian former Chelsea manager refused to be drawn on whether he would stay at City in the event that more than 100 guilty verdicts are not overturned.
“I will speak about this when we win the appeal,” said Maresca, who replaced his one-time mentor Pep Guardiola during the summer.
He added: “There is a process ongoing and in this moment I completely trust the club. This is what I can say about that.
“I trust the club because 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.
“I spoke with the club, for sure, and we all trust and the right moment to speak about that is when we win the appeal.”
Man City ‘honest’ and ‘do right things’, says Maresca
The independent commission’s verdict said Manchester City hid more than £900m of funding from their Abu Dhabi ownership in order to meet Premier League spending rules over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018.
In that time they won three Premier Leagues and laid the foundations for an unprecedented run of four straight titles, and a first Champions League, under Guardiola soon after.
City have always maintained their innocence and said the verdict against them contained “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”. They lodged their appeal last week.
Maresca said he would have “100 per cent” taken his job in the summer even if the guilty verdict had already been announced.
“I know the organisation from years ago and I know how serious they are, I know they do the right things,” said Guardiola’s former assistant.
“We didn’t speak about that because I don’t think that was a problem for the club at the time as they were thinking in an honest way and they are convinced at the end we will win the appeal.”