Enzo Maresca has claimed there is no club in the world he would rather be at than Manchester City and said he would still have joined them even if they had already been found guilty of 114 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules.
The City manager mounted a defence of his club by insisting he trusts them and that they will win their appeal against the verdict and the Italian hinted he could even remain at City if they are relegated to League One as a punishment.
Maresca, who was Pep Guardiola’s assistant in the Treble-winning campaign of 2022-23, said their achievements in recent years are not tainted by the judgment that they benefited from more than £900m of disguised funding between 2009 and 2018.
Maresca signed a three-year contract at the Etihad Stadium in the summer and paid compensation himself to Chelsea after discussing the possibility of replacing Guardiola with City while still employed at Stamford Bridge.
And he said: “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. So I'm very happy to be here. I'm very proud. I said many times since day one.”
Maresca was adamant he would have taken the job even if the independent commission, who said City had “sham” contracts for sponsorship deals, had already ruled against them.
“One hundred percent, yes,” he said. “I know the organisation from years ago. I know how serious they are. I know they do the right things. I would like to speak about this when we're going to win the appeal.”
Maresca did not raise the subject of the Premier League charges in his discussions with City about taking the job.
“No, we didn't speak about that because I don't think that was a problem for the club in that time,” he said. “Also, because they are thinking in an honest way. I think they are convinced that in the end we want to win the appeal.”
Potential punishments for City if their appeal fails could include being expelled from the Premier League or points penalties that would result in relegation.
Guardiola once said he would stay at City if they were in the third tier, as they were in 1998-99, and Maresca offered a similar indication.
“I won the Championship with Leicester,” he said. “So in case of League One, we're going to see.”
Since 2009, City have won eight Premier League titles, including six in a decade under Guardiola. Maresca was on his coaching staff when they won the Champions League for the first time in 2023 and he feels those triumphs are not tarnished by the club being deemed guilty of cheating.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “The last time I was here from the Treble season and I know the effort from the players, the club, the manager in that time, who was Pep. I know the effort that the club put to achieve that kind of target so I don't have any doubt about that.”
