{"id":11014,"date":"2026-05-19T23:28:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11014"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:28:59","slug":"maresca-set-for-sensational-man-city-return-as-guardiola-era-ends-three-year-deal-agreed-a-new-chapter-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11014","title":{"rendered":"Maresca set for sensational Man City return as Guardiola era ends, three-year deal agreed: a new chapter begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Enzo Maresca is set to become Manchester City manager next season after reaching a verbal agreement with the club.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Maresca will replace Pep Guardiola at the Etihad, with the latter having decided to step down after a decorated decade at the club.<\/div>\n<p>Manchester City are yet to make an official announcement on Guardiola&#8217;s exit, but it is expected to be communicated imminently.<\/p>\n<p>The Cityzens have moved for Maresca as their replacement, in a move that will see the Italian return to the club. Maresca previously worked as part of Guardiola&#8217;s coaching staff at the Etihad, before leaving for Leicester City in 2023.<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The 46-year-old led Leicester to promotion to the Premier League in his sole season at the King Power Stadium, before taking charge of Chelsea.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">His debut season at Chelsea saw the club secure Champions League qualification and Europa Conference League success, before beating Paris Saint-Germain to win the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer. Maresca unexpectedly departed the West Londoners in January amid growing tension with the board.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that a &#8216;total&#8217; agreement has been reached between Maresca and Manchester City over a three-year deal.<\/div>\n<p>He faces the sizeable task of replacing Guardiola, who has overseen the most successful period in the club&#8217;s history. Guardiola has won 20 trophies during his time at City, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>His achievements also include becoming the first Premier League team to reach 100 points in a campaign, the first English team to win a domestic treble, and leading City to a Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League treble in 2022\/23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enzo Maresca is set to become Manchester City manager next season after reaching a verbal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}