Jorge Mendes. He represents Maresca and is how Romano and Ornstein knew of the likelihood of this happening even months ago. They even reported back in January that Maresca had already spoken to City about replacing Pep.Expect better from the club. How has this been leaked? Can’t see us recovering from this for a while.
Absolutely! Adore Pep and will cherish this past decade forever, but the year in year out speculating about whether this year is his last had gotten a bit tiresome tbh. Feels refreshing to be reframing things as a new long term on the field project rather than a discussion about how we eventually extricate ourselves from our manager who is so embedded at the club. Seeing how we move on fron the Pep era and continue our success is the one last unanswered question under this ownership and we're about to find out!Obviously gutting that Peps off, we’ll never see his like here again, but is anyone else actually quite excited to see what a new manager can do with this squad rather than pure doom and gloom?
I reckon a guy like Maresca who’s more direct in his attacking approach might work wonders with the likes of Marmoush, Semenyo, Doku, even Savinho. And that’s not even mentioning Erling who despite his goals has often looked isolated and starved of service post treble season.
Obviously not expecting anything close to peak Pep ball dominance or trophy haul, but it’ll be a different City.
Or it could very easily all go tits up and we go down the United post Ferguson route. One things for certain, next season will be interesting
Page 115 will just be a picture of Pep sticking two fingers up with one hand, and the wanker gesture with the otherThere is only one: PepTalk.
Anything else is heresy.
I think the club believe that we need a seat-warmer in between ideologues.Not sure why we didn’t go for Xabi Alonso
BBC on MarescaAbsolutely. Don't know if Maresca will work or not but looking forward to seeing how we evolve.
I adore Pep and would rather he stay on but people are talking about a fall off like a we didn't start falling off couple of years ago. Dare I say, with a fully committed Pep we would have walked the league this year. Not that I think he's downed tools by any means whatsoever but his demeanor has been far, far more relaxed this season.
Regardless, he's leaving us with a fantastic young squad that any manager would be licking their lips at the prospect of working with.
I don't expect us to ever reach the same heights of breaking records season after season but those times ended after the treble season anyway and I can't wait to see how we develop.
Don't talk daft. Hundreds of people at the club will have known, any one of them could have leaked it. What exactly are they supposed to do? You can't keep it secret from everybody forever, arrangements have to be made for the changeover, plans for the announcement such as a pre-recorded video perhaps, programme notes on the final day and so on. That's not even scratching the surface.Expect better from the club. How has this been leaked? Can’t see us recovering from this for a while.
Moonchester?I reckon Pep will still be here next season, just not as head coach.
Would have liked Pep L to stay on.Willy C no 2 looks like
I like the first one best.Shall we speculate on the title?
Pepchester City
Manpepster City
Manchester Pepty
I wonder if the tarquins has drawn, or lost last night if this announcement would have been made?
I think that's total nonsense. Maresca knows the club inside out, did amazingly well getting a Leicester side in total disarray promoted straight away, even after losing a good few senior players, and won two trophies at a Chelsea while taking them to a 4th place finish. They were almost in freefall when he took over there. That's a phenominal record by anybody's standards in such a short space of time. Maresca's in for the long haul, not a stop gap if indeed he is taking over.I think the club believe that we need a seat-warmer in between ideologues.
Mancini was an ideologue who pushed the club forward, Pellegrini just about maintained the new standards while keeping the players happy and keeping the seat warm, Pep was an ideologue who pushed the club forward again, and Maresca will just about maintain standards while keeping the players happy and keeping the seat warm, until the next ideologue is ready to push the club forward again.
There's a lot of weight on the next manager's shoulders. Maybe the club think it's sensible to give the job to a guy who's not expected to do as well anyway. Just someone who can come in for 2-3 years, keep things ticking over without ripping up any trees, and then the next guy we really bank on for a lengthy stay will be seen as a forward move as opposed to a sideways or a backwards one.
Well the Club has clearly done a shit job of keeping under wraps! It’s been an open secret for months. It’s not been like other times there’s been speculation. It’s been fuelled by speculation from within the Club which isn’t great.
If I remember correctly Ferguson’s departure was announced out of the blue and the twats went onto win the league.
I had the thought that the timing of the leak was rather coincidental with the game last night! Would love it to have been true but probably not.Here is my opinion, just my opinion.
Last night the news seemed to drop at 8pm - I got it from Talksport as I had tuned in to hopefully hear Burnley wallop Arsenal 4:0 (they didn't) I txted a few mates and said, this timing is odd: maybe mindgames to try and distract Arsenal or possibly get City to play 10% harder tonight and Sunday.... I was thinking he can then always roll back and say it was all hot air.
I suppose there is still a tiny chance that is still the case.
But probably not - too many respected news outlets running it, it was even the phone in on Nicky Campbell (BBC 5) this morning - makes a change from Keir Starmer I suppose.
So I think this is what has happened: Enzo Maresca is free now, he has worked at City previously, he has experience at the very top of the game (if we can call the Club World Cup that) BUT he probably would have been snapped up by someone else in the next year - so this has happened now & we have a sort of smooth(ish) transition.
Furthermore, it is a World Cup in a month: one of the top teams will under perform and be looking for a new Manager - in steps Pep. An international job in late 2026 that might not be available for him in 12 months time...
I hope England do well, by the way, BUT if they are one of those top teams who under performs...... well you never know!
and Maresca will just about maintain standards
Yes i get that which I find very knaieve of them but now the cats out if the bag and every man and his dog is reporting it why not officially announce it.
The moment club sponsors were informed then it was bound to get out .Club should have maybe left off a few more days on letting sponsors know, however they probably have their reasons for that. Internally the club has mostly kept a lid on it. It’s however become a story once the info has moved into partner organisations outside of the club where people who should be saying nothing are now briefing the media.
5 things, you forgot bragging rights over the scum. Possibly 6 if you include not losing to spuds.To be fair, at the start of each season there are 4 things to win. This season we have won 50% of them and an outside chance of 75% of them.
If Maresca maintains this standard, I will be happy enough!
What would it have done to our season if it's all been planned for months? We have players like Guehi and Semenyo who had just arrived and might not have wanted to make the move if they had known Pep was going to leave. Semenyo specifically said that it was playing under Pep that was the main attraction. There would have been all sorts of disruption and we might well not have own anything again. As I said, it not the club's fault it was leaked, in fact as it was leaked by somebody else it's nothing to do with how the club handled it.He has been getting asked questions for weeks now mate? Maybe i`m more pissed off it was Oliver Fucking Holt who broke it but it goes against the normally top class professional way we do things?