Maresca Targets Malo Gusto as Manchester City Manager

Enzo Maresca is wasting no time.

Even before Manchester City formally unveil him as Pep Guardiola’s successor, the Italian is already steering the club’s recruitment – and his gaze has drifted straight back towards Stamford Bridge and Malo Gusto.

Maresca’s City blueprint starts at right-back

City have thrashed out compensation with Chelsea and are set to confirm Maresca as their new manager, a bold appointment to follow the most transformative coach in the club’s history. The cautionary tales are obvious: David Moyes at Manchester United, Unai Emery at Arsenal. Both walked into dressing rooms still echoing with the authority of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger and never truly escaped the shadows.

Maresca appears determined not to repeat that mistake. He wants his own fingerprints on this City side, and that means players he trusts.

Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez were quickly floated as potential reunions, but those doors have all but slammed shut. Chelsea consider Palmer “untouchable”, the poster boy of their rebuild, while Real Madrid are now at the front of the queue for Fernandez, who is open to a move.

Gusto, though, is a different story.

Gusto emerges as a live target

According to talkSPORT, Maresca has urged City to move for the French right-back, a player he knows well from his Chelsea spell. With their pursuit of Inter defender Marco Palestra derailed after Chelsea agreed a £51m deal for the Italian, City have been forced to redraw their defensive shortlist. The response has been swift: switch focus to Gusto.

Chelsea are braced for offers. The London club are understood to want at least £40m for the defender as they prepare to bring Palestra into a back line already crowded with options. Earlier this week, reports suggested Chelsea were not ruling out a summer sale, despite Gusto’s status in the squad.

The numbers underline that importance. Signed from Lyon in 2023 for £31m, Gusto has grown into a fixture at Stamford Bridge, racking up 134 appearances across three seasons. At just 23, he already carries the profile of a seasoned top-flight defender rather than a prospect.

Right now, he is on an even bigger stage. Gusto is part of a heavily fancied France squad at the World Cup and came off the bench in their commanding 3-0 win over Iraq on Monday, another marker of his rise.

City’s market moves: midfield first, defence next

Gusto is not the only name on City’s shopping list. The club’s primary focus this summer remains the heart of midfield, where England World Cup standout Elliot Anderson has emerged as their top target. City have already seen a second bid of £120m rejected by Nottingham Forest and are weighing up a third offer.

That pursuit underlines the scale of the rebuild facing Maresca. He steps into a dressing room accustomed to domination under Guardiola, a side that completed a domestic cup double last season yet stumbled in the Premier League, finishing seven points behind new champions Arsenal in the Spaniard’s final campaign.

For Maresca, who left Chelsea in January less than six months after lifting the Club World Cup in his first season at Stamford Bridge, this is a rare opportunity and a brutal test rolled into one. He inherits the keys to a winning machine that has just slipped off the summit.

So he reaches for what he knows. A modern, aggressive right-back who can live high up the pitch, handle the ball under pressure and survive the physical tempo of the Premier League.

If City meet Chelsea’s price and Gusto follows Maresca north, it will be the first clear sign of how the new man intends to reshape a champion’s squad that suddenly feels just a little vulnerable.