Manchester City Faces New Era Under Maresca
Manchester City are stepping into the unknown.
Pep Guardiola has gone, his era boxed up and shelved as one of the greatest English football has seen. In his place stands Enzo Maresca, the Italian coach handed the keys to a machine that has dominated the Premier League for the best part of a decade.
The expectation outside? Relentless. Inside the club? Joe Hart is convinced it looks very different.
Hart: City will ease Maresca into the storm
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, the former City goalkeeper painted a picture of a hierarchy braced for turbulence rather than demanding instant perfection.
"I think the club isn't heaping massive expectation on this season," Hart said. "I think they still believe that they've got the team and they've got the quality to challenge. I still feel they'll want to be pushing on all fronts. But the same sort of pressure, as an organisation, I don't think will be on this season. I don't think they're going to be put under that pressure internally."
That stance matters. City have just been thumped 3-0 by Arsenal in the Community Shield, a bruising reminder that the transition from Guardiola to Maresca will not be seamless. The result has already triggered questions, but Hart believes the club’s decision-makers are taking a longer view as the squad naturally evolves.
Maresca walks into a dressing room stacked with serial winners and sky-high standards. Any dip, any stutter, will be seized upon. He also steps into a transfer window that is anything but straightforward.
City are in talks over Lille’s 18-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi in a deal worth £85.6m, while their interest in Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez remains alive. These are not the moves of a club preparing to retreat. They are the moves of a club trying to retool on the fly.
External noise, internal calculation
Hart is under no illusion about how quickly the mood can turn if results wobble when the Premier League season starts.
"Externally, there's always going to be the noise," he said. "Maresca will come immediately under fire in terms of how people want to jump all over Man City if they do struggle."
The former England No 1 expects the club to hold its nerve even if the outside world does not.
"Internally, I think they're intelligent enough as a business to understand that what's going on right now is going to be difficult."
That word – difficult – is rarely associated with City in recent years. Four straight titles between 2021 and 2024, a domestic dominance that turned the Premier League into their personal playground. Now they are the hunters again, not the champions. And someone else has the target on their back.
Arsenal step into the spotlight
That someone is Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side have finally dislodged City from the summit, and with that comes a new, unforgiving reality. Hart knows exactly what that feels like. He was in goal for City when they failed to defend their titles in 2012-13 and 2014-15. The crown weighs heavier than anyone expects.
He warned that Arsenal are about to discover a level of scrutiny they have never experienced.
During his peak at the Etihad, Hart admits he fell into the trap that success lays for players.
"I was walking on water at that time. I actually thought I was 'that guy'," he said, with a candour that cuts through the usual clichés.
Then comes the comedown.
"And football finds a way, really quickly, of showing you that you're not. And when things started to unravel, which they will in any season, they seemed to really unravel because all of a sudden you're under that kind of champion scrutiny."
That is the world Arsenal now inhabit. Every draw feels like a crisis. Every defeat becomes a referendum on character, mentality, recruitment, coaching. The noise never stops.
The real test starts now
For Hart, the lesson is blunt: reaching the top is only half the story.
The prevailing sentiment from his reflections is that true greatness lies in staying there, not just touching the summit once. Arsenal have climbed, but now they must cling on while everyone else – City included – tries to drag them down.
"It's really important how Arsenal are going to handle that, but Mikel Arteta has done a brilliant job, and he makes really big decisions and bold decisions," Hart said. "And it's about how you handle that first hurt. It's ironic that getting to the top is the easy thing, it really is."
City, stripped of Guardiola but still armed with a ferocious squad and serious financial muscle, are bracing for a season of adjustment. Arsenal, newly crowned and suddenly the benchmark, are bracing for something else entirely.
One club learning how to live without its defining figure. Another learning what it really means to be the team everyone wants to beat.
Only one of them will handle that hurt better.
