Six backroom allies Enzo Maresca could bring with him to Manchester City

Enzo Maresca is poised to take charge at Manchester City, with his appointment expected to be confirmed imminently, and he looks set to reshape the club’s backroom staff almost entirely after a wave of departures that followed Pep Guardiola’s exit.

Guardiola’s long-serving inner circle has been dismantled in full. Manel Estiarte, the manager’s right-hand man throughout his time in Manchester, and fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura have both left, as has goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor, who had been at the club since the Manuel Pellegrini era. Assistant Pep Lijnders and former academy coach Kolo Toure, both of whom spent just a single season on the senior staff, are also departing. The only member of Guardiola’s backroom team confirmed to remain is set-piece coach James French, who joined from Liverpool last summer.

Lijnders, speaking to Dutch publication AD this week, explained his reasons for leaving. “My wife and I want a permanent place for our growing sons,” he said. “Moving back to England for years is no longer an option. Without my family, I wouldn’t do a second year anyway. The club wanted to move forward, offered me a position on a new manager’s staff, or the chance to become head coach at a foreign club within the City Football Group.”

The scale of the clear-out gives Maresca significant latitude to build his own structure, and several candidates from his previous roles are understood to be in line to join him. Roberto Vitiello, who served as Maresca’s assistant at both Leicester City and Chelsea, is among those expected to make the move. The pair also played together at Palermo in Italy, where Vitiello built a playing career spanning nearly 500 senior appearances, predominantly in Serie B.

Former City goalkeeper Willy Caballero is another name linked with a return to the Etihad in a coaching capacity. Caballero worked with Maresca at both Leicester and Chelsea and won the League Cup with City during his playing days. His familiarity with the club, combined with his existing relationship with the incoming manager, makes him a natural fit for the goalkeeping coach role left vacant by Mancisidor’s departure.

Maresca arrives with a strong track record in management, having led Leicester to the Championship title in 2023-24 before taking Chelsea to the Champions League last season. He also spent the 2022-23 campaign on Guardiola’s staff at City, giving him first-hand experience of the club’s methods during the treble-winning season — a foundation Guardiola himself acknowledged when urging City’s next manager to be his own man rather than attempt to replicate his approach.