Enzo Maresca Takes Over Manchester City as Guardiola Departs
Enzo Maresca will take the reins at Manchester City from the 2026/27 season, stepping into one of the most demanding and decorated jobs in modern football as Pep Guardiola prepares to walk away after a decade of dominance and 20 trophies.
Guardiola’s decision to end his Etihad reign has triggered a seismic reset behind the scenes. City’s hierarchy have spent months sketching out life after the Catalan, trying to preserve the essence of an era while accepting that nothing quite like it will be replicated. Maresca is the man chosen to lead that next chapter.
But he will do so without Pep Lijnders.
Lijnders chooses his own road
Lijnders, Guardiola’s assistant for just a single, breathless season, will leave the club this summer. His stint has been short, but far from insignificant. He arrived in June 2025 with a reputation already carved out from his years at Liverpool alongside Jürgen Klopp, bringing with him a fierce energy and a meticulous eye for detail.
City wanted that energy to stay.
According to reporting from The Athletic’s James Pearce, the club moved to keep Lijnders as part of the post-Guardiola structure. With Maresca expected to step up as manager, City offered the 43-year-old a new long-term contract and a place on the Italian’s staff.
He turned it down.
The Dutch coach has decided he does not want to remain an assistant under a new regime. After working under two of the defining managers of his generation, Klopp and Guardiola, Lijnders is ready to carve out his own identity rather than remain in someone else’s shadow.
End of an era, and a quiet farewell
Guardiola’s exit after 10 years and 20 trophies has naturally dominated the headlines. Yet Lijnders’ departure underlines how deep the change will run at City. This is not just a change of manager; it is a reshaping of the technical core that has driven the club’s relentless success.
On Sunday, after the final Premier League game of the season at home to Aston Villa, Lijnders will say his goodbyes to players and staff. No fanfare, no grand ceremony. Just a coach closing one chapter and preparing for another, somewhere else, this summer.
City will move into the Maresca era with a new voice in the dugout and one of their brightest recent additions choosing to walk away. The question now is not whether they can replace legends, but how quickly a new structure can impose itself on a club that has known almost nothing but Guardiola’s way for a decade.
