Enzo Maresca Takes Over as Manchester City Manager
Enzo Maresca will take over as Manchester City manager from the 2026/27 season, stepping into one of the most demanding jobs in modern football just as the club says goodbye to the man who reshaped it.
Pep Guardiola’s decision to walk away after a decade, 20 trophies and a dynasty built in sky blue has already sent ripples through the game. Now comes the next twist: Pep Lijnders, the assistant many inside the Etihad saw as a key pillar of the post-Guardiola era, is leaving as well.
Lijnders walks away from City project
Lijnders’ time at City has been short, intense and highly valued. He arrived in June 2025, fresh from an illustrious spell working alongside Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool, and instantly injected energy into Guardiola’s backroom staff.
City’s hierarchy viewed him as more than a one-season lieutenant. With Guardiola confirming the end of his 10-year reign, club bosses mapped out a future in which Lijnders would help bridge the transition to Maresca, maintaining continuity in the dressing room and on the training ground.
They moved to tie him down. According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, City offered the Dutch coach a new long-term contract and a prominent role on Maresca’s staff. The message was clear: stay, help carry this team into its next phase.
He said no.
At 43, Lijnders has chosen to step away rather than remain an assistant under a new regime. After years in the shadows of two of the defining managers of this era, Klopp and Guardiola, he wants to carve out his own path.
End of an era, on and off the touchline
Guardiola’s departure alone would have marked a seismic summer for City. His 10-year spell has delivered Premier League titles, domestic dominance and European glory, all underpinned by a style of play that has influenced an entire league.
Now the club must absorb a double exit.
Lijnders will say his goodbyes to players and staff on Sunday, after City’s final Premier League game of the season at home to Aston Villa. It will be an emotional day: a farewell not just to the legendary Catalan on the touchline, but also to the assistant who was being lined up as a key figure in the club’s next chapter.
Maresca is expected to walk into a dressing room still echoing with Guardiola’s voice, but without the Dutch coach many at City hoped would help smooth the handover. The Italian will bring his own people, his own ideas, his own rhythm.
City, used to stability under one man for a decade, now face something far more uncertain: a new manager, a new staff, and the first true reset of the Guardiola era.
The trophies on the Etihad shelves tell one story. How City handle this summer will decide what the next chapter looks like.
