City pay £17m for Maresca as he apologises to Chelsea

Enzo Maresca has been confirmed as Manchester City’s manager on a three-year contract, the Italian returning to the club where he worked for 12 months as an assistant to Pep Guardiola.

- Will Unwin

City have paid Chelsea £17m in compensation for their former head coach and Maresca also agreed a personal settlement with the west London club and apologised for the impact of his departure at the start of the year.

Maresca has been expected to take over at City since Guardiola confirmed he would leave, but lengthy negotiations were held over recompense Chelsea felt they were due.

Chelsea say Maresca notified them of the potential opportunity to replace Guardiola at the end of the 2024-25 season and it was clear he wanted to pursue this, with the club claiming his resignation at the turn of the year “was a major contributing factor” to their poor campaign. Maresca said: “I recognise that my departure from Chelsea in the middle of the season caused disruption for the club and I apologise for that. It was neither my intention nor my wish.”

A Chelsea statement read: “No club wants to change its head coach midway through a season. In the circumstances and given the mutual respect between clubs, a confidential settlement has been reached with Manchester City, which includes the payment of compensation. A confidential settlement has also been reached with the former head coach under which he will pay compensation.”