Maresca faces players and press in 48 hours as Man City's 115-charge fallout deepens

Enzo Maresca will hold two defining meetings within 48 hours as Manchester City begin to navigate the fallout from last week’s overwhelming guilty verdict on 115 Premier League financial charges — a team meeting on Thursday followed by a press conference on Friday ahead of Sunday’s trip to Anfield.

Nearly two weeks will have passed since the verdict landed by the time Maresca gathers his squad in the same room. The timing of the international window meant most of his players dispersed on international duty almost immediately after the news broke, leaving Thursday as the first opportunity for a collective conversation about what the findings mean for the club.

That meeting carries considerable weight. Maresca will need to look his players in the eye and set out the club’s position for the weeks and months ahead, with City appealing a verdict that currently points toward serious consequences across nearly every possible outcome. Several players are understood to have already spoken directly with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, but the full squad gathering will be the moment Maresca must project clarity and conviction.

Friday’s press conference then becomes the first time any member of the City hierarchy will have spoken publicly since the verdicts were published. The significance is not lost on those inside the club. When the original charges were announced in February 2023, Pep Guardiola came out forcefully in the club’s defence — a response widely credited with helping supporters rally behind the team. Maresca now faces a similar moment, with his words set to be replayed across media throughout the weekend and into Sunday morning.

Maresca was given strong reassurances when he agreed to join City that a guilty verdict was unlikely, making the current reality one he had hoped to avoid entirely. He must now address it head-on while simultaneously preparing his side to extend a run of five consecutive wins to six against Liverpool at Anfield.

How he handles both meetings — the private and the public — is expected to shape significantly how City respond to the crisis on and off the pitch for the remainder of the season.