![\"Chelsea,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-chelsea-everton-football_7109137.jpg\")
<\/p>\nChelsea head coach Enzo Maresca dismissed reports naming him as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City as “100 per cent speculation”.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, The Athletic reported the Italian is among the candidates being considered to replace Guardiola, should he leave the club in the summer.<\/p>\n
Guardiola’s current deal with City runs until 2027, but it is reported the club are making contingency plans for when the six-time Premier League champion decides to step away.<\/p>\n
Maresca was one of Guardiola’s assistant managers during their treble-winning 2022\/23 season, before going on to win the Sky Bet Championship with Leicester and two trophies with Chelsea as a head coach himself.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t affect me at all because I know it’s 100 per cent speculation,” Maresca said in his press conference on Friday morning, ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Newcastle on Saturday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Chelsea\u2019s win against Everton in the Premier League<\/p>\n
“In this moment, there is no time for these kinds of things, first of all because I have a contract here until 2029.<\/p>\n
“I said many times, my focus is just about this club and I’m very proud to be here.<\/p>\n
“It’s speculation. One week ago, in Italy, it was the same with Juventus.<\/p>\n
“I don’t pay attention because I know it’s not true.<\/p>\n
“Now it’s important to understand the reason why this news was there. But it’s not my job – I don’t care at all.”<\/p>\n
![\"Thumbnail\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-maresca-football_7114235.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Kaveh Solhekol explains the reports that Maresca could replace Guardiola at the end of the season<\/p>\n
He was later asked if he could promise supporters he would to be at Chelsea next season.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely, yes,” he replied.<\/p>\n
“Again, I have a contract until 2029 and this is speculation.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have anything to add because I don’t pay attention, and if we continue to talk about that, that means I’m paying attention to that.<\/p>\n
“I’m just focused on the Newcastle game and my job.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca dismissed reports naming him as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-358134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}