- 19 hours ago
Maresca on City exits and transfers ahead of season opener against Bournemouth
21/08/2026
CFGA, Manchester, Uk
21/08/2026
CFGA, Manchester, Uk
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:01Enzo, here we are on the eve of a new Premier League season.
00:04What's your mood now? Is it excitement?
00:06Is it looking forward to taking this group on to the next stage?
00:09How do you view the season to come?
00:10Very excited, as you said, very excited to start this new chapter,
00:15this new journey.
00:17The target is to carry on in the same way of the last 10-15 years.
00:26We are also happy to finally play our first game at home.
00:31So, yeah, excited.
00:32And ahead of that first game against Bournemouth,
00:34what's the team news going into this weekend?
00:37At the moment, the only one is Jeremy Doku.
00:43Then Mateus is back.
00:45Yeah, Jeremy and the rest, they are all OK.
00:49And on Bournemouth, obviously they've had some change this summer,
00:52a new manager, presumably a new style of play.
00:55How do you approach this? How do you prepare for them?
00:57Yeah, I watched the game.
00:58I watched the pre-season game.
01:00I also watched some games from last season,
01:03where he was in another club.
01:05And you can see clearly, you know, the identity.
01:07Very aggressive team.
01:08They were already very aggressive with Adoni,
01:12and now they are still aggressive.
01:15So it's quite clear what they do on the ball and off the ball.
01:21Hi, Enzo.
01:23So, Rodri has now left the club,
01:25and I'm sure that the club are going to miss him a lot.
01:28I know you said you would have liked him to stay,
01:30but it seemed he'd made his mind up.
01:32Was there ever any realistic chance of him staying?
01:35Did you try to persuade him to stay?
01:37It's quite clear when players want to leave,
01:44and then it's difficult for any reason they want to leave,
01:47then it's complicated to convince them to stay
01:51or to change their thoughts.
01:53So, it happened with Rodri.
01:56The same thing is happening with Savinho.
01:59Since day one, he asked me that he wants to leave.
02:02So now we are waiting.
02:04But it's complicated, you know, when the players,
02:06they are thinking that they need a new challenge
02:09or they want to change because they want probably back to Spain
02:15or they want to play more minutes for different reasons.
02:18So, it's become complicated then to convince them to stay.
02:23OK, you mentioned Savinho there,
02:25but Reinders has also gone.
02:28There's a talk of Nico Gonzalez, possibly Omar Mamouche.
02:31Why are so many players leaving at the moment?
02:33Are you happy about this?
02:34Yeah, probably.
02:35Unless Rodri, the rest, they have all in common one thing,
02:38that they didn't play a lot.
02:41So, at the end, we said many times,
02:43we just finished a session and they all work every day
02:46because at the end they want to play.
02:47And when they don't play, probably they want to, you know,
02:50they prefer to leave.
02:52So, the ones that you mentioned, probably unless Rodri,
02:55the rest, they are all players that, for different reasons,
02:59they didn't play a lot.
03:01So, picking up on that end though,
03:03do you expect Omar Mamouche to leave?
03:05Is that deal with Spurs going to happen, do you think, at this stage?
03:08I don't know. Omar is still here.
03:11He's still with us.
03:12It's a different situation than Savinho.
03:15And we'll see what's happening.
03:16Is he a more difficult one to let go with the challenge
03:20of having to try and sign a replacement striker
03:23with 11 days to go of this window?
03:26I think it's always complicated when players are leaving
03:29and someone has to arrive.
03:31If you are not ready, but we see if Omar stays
03:36or we see what's happening.
03:38For sure, we are going to have more options in case players,
03:43they go out.
03:44As I said already a few times, if they go out,
03:46someone has to arrive.
03:48Given there are only now 11 days of this transfer window left,
03:52do you have any concerns that you are, as a club,
03:55leaving it very late to build the squad you'll need to compete
03:59for the Premier League title?
04:00No, I'm not worried. I'm not concerned.
04:06Since day one, we know exactly what we need.
04:11We are working together with the sport director, with the club.
04:16And again, it's 10 days to go, 11 days to go, and many things can happen.
04:23Just regarding City's interest in Enzo Fernandes,
04:26just from your understanding, where do you guys sit with that,
04:29with the Chelsea deadline having passed,
04:31and do you expect to still push for Enzo having played with him at Chelsea?
04:35Unfortunately, I need to answer always in the same way.
04:38Enzo is a Chelsea player, and I'm not going to talk about players
04:41that they are not with us.
04:45First of all, because I think it's lack of respect.
04:48And second, because I don't like when different managers
04:51talk about our players.
04:57Enzo, considering the result against Arsenal last weekend,
05:01the number of changes in the squad, new managers as well,
05:04is time and patience...
05:08I think you'll get that.
05:09Say again, sorry.
05:10Is time and patience going to be taken?
05:15It's clear that there are changes, managers, players,
05:20but we are a club that we cannot wait for time to compete.
05:26So we need to compete since they won.
05:30Again, Arsenal game, we wanted to win, we didn't win,
05:35after analysing the game for different reasons.
05:38Now the focus has to be just about Bournemouth, Premier League and all the games that we have had.
05:45How important is it for people to stay calm, not just yourself,
05:48players and fans as well?
05:50Very important, for sure it's very important, because we know that when we win games, fans are happy,
05:56but I'm happy when we win games.
05:58When we don't win, everyone is upset, you sleep less.
06:05There are many things when you don't win games, that's why it's important also to win games,
06:08because we all are more happy, but no doubt that we are going to win games.
06:14And as you've mentioned, there's been a few exits so far,
06:17might be a few more going out.
06:19What's the minimum number you'd like to bring in before the end of the transfer window?
06:23We don't have minimum number or maximum number, it depends a little bit.
06:29As I said after the last game, in case you win games or you lose games,
06:35we are not going to change our perspective or our idea on how many players we need.
06:40We know exactly what we need, how many players we need,
06:44and then we'll see it now in the next ten days.
06:48Enzo, you've had Phil Foden with you since you arrived.
06:53We saw training in South Korea, it looked like he had a really good session.
06:57Everyone always says that he trains really well.
06:59Thomas Tuchel said it in March that he's a brilliant trainer,
07:02but hasn't been able to replicate that on the pitch recently.
07:05How do you go about translating those performances behind closed doors to a Saturday?
07:13I think Phil, for me personally, had a good game against also in the last game.
07:19So you can see that he's sharp, he's good.
07:22And since day one, he looks very, very good.
07:25People that are inside the building, they are saying to me that compared to Phil
07:30in the last year or in the last two years, he's a completely different player
07:34in terms of mood, in terms of what he showed during the session.
07:37And this is what we want. Phil is from the academies, from the house.
07:44So it's nice also for everyone to see him getting better and better.
07:49And just looking at the way you've set up in the friendlies and the community shield,
07:54would it be fair to say that he's in sort of direct competition with Ryan Cherky
07:58for that spot in behind Haaland up front? Is that where you see him sort of playing?
08:03They can play together in different positions, they can play together,
08:07but for sure they are quite similar.
08:10And at the end, I think if you want to build an important team,
08:14you need competition inside the team.
08:16So it's good that Phil with Ryan, they have competition,
08:20but again, they can play also together in some games.
08:23I can just ask a very quick one about, you mentioned Marmouche is different to Savino,
08:28even though Spurs sort of want to sign both of them.
08:31What's the reason for them being in different situations?
08:34Savio, since day one, asked to leave.
08:36And Omar, he didn't ask to leave since day one.
08:40Hasn't?
08:41Not yet.
08:45I watched the documentary the other night.
08:47I'm sure plenty of people have by now.
08:49And one thing that was interesting to me among many things
08:51was the club's data model that it uses to predict where it's going to be,
08:56looks at the squad, its quality compared to the rivals.
08:59Taking it away from AI and asking Enzo Mareska, the manager,
09:03how healthy is this squad to meet your expectations and your ambitions?
09:09I think we have a good squad, for sure.
09:14And it's not, it's a context, it's not excuse, it's a context
09:18that when you made many changes, but not only the manager,
09:23how many years Rodri was here, John was here, Ake was here, Bernardo was here.
09:28It's a big change, but that means that we are not going to be ready to compete.
09:33We need to be ready to compete.
09:34I want to compete.
09:35And again, the reason why I'm here is because I want to try to win titles
09:39and to carry on with this club, this organisation has done for the last 15 years.
09:45Where we are now, it's also a bit complicated because we started one month ago.
09:50But again, for sure the intention is to compete as soon as possible.
09:56And looking at the profile of recruitment, there's been a lot of talented young players
10:00that Man City have looked at, understandably so, thinking about building things for the future.
10:04Is there a desire for you to look at maybe a few more experienced players
10:09to replace some of the experience lost? Would that be of benefit?
10:15When players are good, they are good. I don't mind the age. Also in my previous experience,
10:23we are the youngest squad in the Premier League. But if they are good, they are good.
10:28For sure players with experience, they can give you different things. But again, we have 10 days to go.
10:34And hopefully we can do the things that we plan.
10:37And just finally for me, looking back at the footage from the Arsenal game,
10:43you could maybe break down little moments of misunderstandings between players,
10:46which I think is natural given change and some in new clubs and things like that.
10:50How confident are you that that's a quick learning process to minimise little mistakes,
10:55but that can lead to goals?
10:57Yeah, no, no. We need to solve it in quick, very quick, because now we start games.
11:04Now we have two weeks, entire weeks, but then we're going to start every three days.
11:08So we need as soon as possible to solve problems.
11:12Again, the Arsenal game for me was for different reasons,
11:16but it's also normal at the beginning that there is some misunderstanding,
11:21because most of the part for the players is something new.
11:26Enzo, just on the Jeremy Doku, how serious is his injury? How long do you think he'll be out for?
11:32Unfortunately, I guess in the last game, half-time, he was complaining about a little bit of pain in his
11:38scalp,
11:39and then the idea with him was to play in any case 45 minutes.
11:42So for him the change was planned.
11:47And at the moment it looks like two, three weeks, no more than that.
11:51Just in terms of yourself, you've got history with Manchester City, you left your last spelling three years ago.
11:58Just wondering, you've been here a few weeks now, what changes have you noticed since you came back to the
12:03club?
12:0590% of the squad is not the squad of three years ago.
12:10I think there are three, four players.
12:11Then people inside the building, they are still the same.
12:14Most of the people inside the building, they were with me when I was here previously with EDS.
12:20So inside the building, it's quite familiar, family.
12:24The squad is 90% different.
12:29Hi Enzo, you mentioned wanting to continue the work the last 10-15 years.
12:33It's an argument to say that the club is in the biggest state of flux in that sort of time
12:38span
12:38in the last 10-15 years with all the players that have left, etc.
12:42When you agreed to take this job, which I believe was the new year or the start of this year,
12:46did you understand it would have been such a state of flux, change?
12:53First of all, the contact with the club was not at the beginning of the season,
13:01it was at the end of the season.
13:06I knew exactly that there was change, not only the manager but also in terms of players.
13:13The good thing is that the club knows exactly where we are.
13:16This is the most important thing, what do we need?
13:19And the club, first of all, the club, they know that we are changing
13:25and I was aware, completely aware of that.
13:28So from your point of view, in English we sort of have a phrase,
13:31kind of a bit of a hospital pass.
13:33I don't know if you know this phrase in Italian where you're like,
13:34oh, thanks a lot, you've had him be there sort of thing.
13:37Is that how you're viewing this or is it optimistically as a great challenge?
13:41No, no, I said day one, I feel really, for me it's a privilege to be here.
13:48It's a huge club, huge organisation.
13:51I'm convinced because of the player and because of the club,
13:54because what we can do, that we can achieve something important.
13:58Now it's normal that it's not something magic day after day,
14:02it's something that you need to build.
14:04And we're gonna build.
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