Enzo Maresca met the first wave of questions after Manchester City were found guilty of Premier League financial-rule charges with the same message throughout: the manager will leave the legal process to the club and keep his squad on the pitch.
In the dressing room
Maresca said his faith in City’s structure has not shifted. He told reporters that a process remains under way and that he has complete trust in the club.
That trust, he said, was central to his decision to take the job. He spoke warmly of the people running the club, saying there was nowhere else in football he would rather be and that he had total confidence in the owners, the chief executive, the sporting director and the wider organisation.
The manager was repeatedly invited to consider what might follow from City’s appeal, including the prospect of an unsuccessful outcome. He declined to map out consequences before the case is settled.
“What if the appeal is won? It is the same thing,” Maresca said, arguing that such questions amount to trying to predict events still to come.
Asked about the most severe hypothetical punishments, he reached for his Leicester City experience. Maresca noted that his side won the Championship with Leicester and said that, if City were ever in League One, they would deal with it then. He quickly returned to his main point: it makes little sense to dwell on an outcome nobody yet knows.
Football, not the noise
Maresca’s view is that neither he nor his players can influence the proceedings. Their responsibility, he said, is restricted to football and winning matches.
He added that managing the outside noise is part of the job, with the manager and players concentrating on results rather than matters beyond their control.
There was no invitation from him to broaden the debate into the boardroom. When asked whether senior figures including Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Ferran Soriano should address the issue publicly, Maresca pointed out that he was speaking at a press conference concerning Liverpool.
The week ahead, then, is framed in straightforward football terms from the manager’s seat: prepare for Liverpool, keep the focus inside the training ground and allow the appeal process to run its course elsewhere.
