Maresca Confirms City Players Wanted Enzo Fernandez

Enzo Maresca says the Manchester City dressing room was already sold on Enzo Fernandez before the club were.

Several senior players approached the manager in the final days of the transfer window, asking the same question: Is he coming?

“I can promise you that in the last four or five days four or five players from the squad were asking if he is coming or not because they want him to be with us,” Maresca said. “It’s very important that he is with us and we are 100% happy with that.”

City got their man. The Argentina international arrived from Chelsea on deadline day for £125m, a joint-British record fee, reuniting with Maresca after their spell together at Stamford Bridge.

The 25-year-old is in line to make his debut on Saturday against newly promoted Coventry City at Etihad Stadium, and his manager insists he is ready to go.

“I know Enzo quite well and I know what he can bring to the team,” Maresca said. “He is a winner – a winner’s mentality and knows how to win [after] the World Cup, Club World Cup.”

Maresca had previously handed Fernandez the captain’s armband at Chelsea. At City, though, the hierarchy is already set. Ruben Dias has been confirmed as the new club captain, replacing Bernardo Silva after his summer departure, with Erling Haaland, Marc Guehi and Gianluigi Donnarumma forming the rest of the leadership group.

The move has not gone down quietly in west London. In an in-house interview released on Thursday, Fernandez said he had always “dreamed of being at a club as big as City”, a line interpreted by many as a dig at Chelsea.

His mind, though, had been made up long before deadline day drama. Fernandez had set his sights on leaving Stamford Bridge around the turn of the year. Even direct talks this summer with manager Xabi Alonso could not shift him.

“In football many things happen,” Alonso said. “With Enzo we have had conversations and always with respect. What he has done for the club has been great, but now it’s time to move forward. We have players with quality in every position and now we are ready to go.”

City’s summer business underlined that same ruthless sense of moving on. The champions spent a transfer window record £458m on new signings, including a staggering £327m on a rebuilt midfield of Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi.

They did not stop there. Wingers Iliman Ndiaye and Allan came through the door, as did back-up goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, while outgoing deals recouped more than £300m.

Maresca made a point of praising the club’s hierarchy for backing such an aggressive overhaul.

“I am very happy for the effort from the ownership, [chairman] Khaldoon [Al Mubarak] and [director of football] Hugo [Viana]. Very happy,” he said. “In the last days, Iliman and Enzo arrived, and now the squad is complete – it’s finished. Now it is time to work.”

The players wanted Enzo Fernandez. The club paid big to get him. Now the real judgement starts on the pitch.