{"id":273198,"date":"2026-08-27T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273198\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:56:10","slug":"enzo-maresca-keen-to-add-leadership-to-manchester-city-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273198\/","title":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca keen to add leadership to Manchester City squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

City this week made Ayyoub Bouaddi the most expensive teenager in Premier League history as they spent \u00a385.6million to sign the 18-year-old Morocco international from Lille, but Maresca is still seeking further reinforcements after a busy summer of departures.<\/p>\n

The loss of players like Rodri, Bernardo Silva and John Stones has cost City vital experience in the squad \u2013 including half of last season\u2019s leadership group \u2013 and Maresca knows it is something that still needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Stones, left, and Bernardo Silva were part of last season\u2019s leadership group (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have experienced players for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have leaders. Now we need to wait four or five more days to see if we can add one or two more captains to Ruben (Dias) and Erling (Haaland) who are the captains. Again, it\u2019s a young squad and we have some experienced players.\u201d<\/p>\n

City continued to be linked with Enzo Fernandez, the 25-year-old Argentina midfielder who was part of Maresca\u2019s leadership team at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

However, the City boss insisted the club were not close to making further signings at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d he said. \u201cThe one that arrived is Ayyoub and then we will see in the next four or five days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EnzoCity continue to be linked with Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez (John Walton\/PA)<\/p>\n

City travel to Crystal Palace on Friday night, looking to build on Sunday\u2019s win over Bournemouth, when late goals from Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol secured a come-from-behind 2-1 win.<\/p>\n

Maresca indicated that Bouaddi could be involved straight away at Selhurst Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he is ready,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was working with his former club so he\u2019s fit. We\u2019ll see how long he needs in terms of adaptation but for sure he\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his tender age, Bouaddi had established himself as a key part of Lille\u2019s side last season before impressing at this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"AyyoubNew recruit Ayyoub Bouaddi starred for Morocco at the World Cup (Nick Potts\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s quite calm,\u201d Maresca said when asked about his key attributes. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t look 18, he looks already mature and this is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case we need to go slowly because he\u2019s very young, he came from a different country and he needs adaptation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo rush for him. For sure he will help us now and in the future. But he is just 18. It is my job and it\u2019s the club\u2019s job to manage him in the best way, don\u2019t put pressure on him, he is young and he needs time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ElliotElliot Anderson is fit after going off with cramp on his Man City debut (Adam Davy\/PA)<\/p>\n

Elliot Anderson is fully fit having seen his Premier League debut for the club cut short by cramp last weekend, but Matheus Nunes remains short of full fitness while Jeremy Doku is still sidelined.<\/p>\n

Jack Grealish, who came off the bench last weekend, has again been linked with a move away from the club this week, but Maresca offered nothing definitive on his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack is here and it\u2019s my duty to try to help him to give us the best (options),\u201d he said. \u201cThen we will see in the next four or five days what is happening. I speak with Jack almost every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City this week made Ayyoub Bouaddi the most expensive teenager in Premier League history as they spent \u00a385.6million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-273198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}