{"id":524780,"date":"2026-06-29T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524780\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:44:10","slug":"chelsea-anger-as-maresca-pays-part-of-compensation-to-become-man-city-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524780\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea anger as Maresca pays part of compensation to become Man City manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Maresca has paid part of Chelsea\u2019s compensation package himself in order to become Manchester City manager<\/a> \u2013 with his former club voicing anger over his departure.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old Italian, who resigned as Chelsea head coach midway through last season, has signed a three-year contract to succeed Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n

The appointment ends months of speculation after Maresca was linked with a return to City long before Guardiola announced in the final week of the 2025-26 season that he would step down.<\/p>\n

Chelsea have revealed that Maresca had informed them last autumn he believed there could be an opportunity to succeed Guardiola.<\/p>\n

He left Stamford Bridge abruptly on New Year\u2019s Day after a poor run of form and a breakdown in his relationship with the club\u2019s ownership.<\/p>\n

He was expected to be confirmed as City\u2019s new manager soon after Guardiola\u2019s last game, but a six-week delay centred on negotiations over compensation for the remaining three years of his Chelsea contract.<\/p>\n

An agreement has now been reached, with the overall compensation package understood to amount to around \u00a317million.<\/p>\n

A Chelsea statement read: \u201cA confidential settlement has been reached with Manchester City, which includes the payment of compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA confidential settlement has also been reached with the former head coach, under which he will pay compensation.\u201d The club added in their strong-worded response they felt \u201clet down\u201d by Maresca\u2019s decision to leave, claiming his \u201chead and heart were focused on another club and another opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Writing on Instagram, Maresca apologised for the disruption caused by his exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of December 2025, I made the difficult decision to leave Chelsea,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe decision was only mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy resignation from Chelsea opened a path for me to join Manchester City, which is a club I knew very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognise that my departure from Chelsea in the middle of the season caused disruption for the club and I apologise for that. It was neither my intention nor my wish.\u201d Maresca, who previously worked at the City academy and as Guardiola\u2019s assistant during the 2022-23 treble-winning campaign, had long been regarded as one of the leading contenders to succeed the Spaniard.<\/p>\n

As a manager he guided Leicester to promotion to the Premier League in 2024 before leading Chelsea to Conference League and Club World Cup success the following year.<\/p>\n

Maresca said: \u201cManchester City is a club I know very well and to have the chance to manage this team is a brilliant opportunity for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third time \u2013 hopefully it\u2019s the last time I come back and I don\u2019t leave any more.\u201d Maresca also pledged to preserve City\u2019s footballing identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to continue as much as we can to dominate games, to play in the opposite side, be aggressive off the ball and with intention on the ball,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said Maresca was \u201crejoining an organisation that is entirely in lock-step with his ambition and hunger for achievement\u201d, while chief executive Ferran Soriano pledged to give him \u201ceverything he needs to be successful\u201d.<\/p>\n

England midfielder Elliot Anderson is set to become City\u2019s first signing of the Maresca era after a reported British record \u00a3116million fee was agreed with Nottingham Forest last week.<\/p>\n

It is understood Anderson, who is currently at the World Cup, underwent a medical over the weekend and a deal could be completed in the coming days.<\/p>\n

On transfers, Maresca said: \u201cThe squad is already good, for sure. We need to do some things, but we are working and we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca has paid part of Chelsea\u2019s compensation package himself in order to become Manchester City manager \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,5783,112],"class_list":["post-524780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-premiership","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}