Maresca Targets Malo Gusto as Manchester City Manager
Enzo Maresca has not even been unveiled at the Etihad yet, but the outline of his Manchester City already looks familiar. He wants the ball, he wants control – and he wants Malo Gusto.
According to reports, Maresca is pushing City to move for the French right-back he worked with at Chelsea, a clear early marker of how he intends to shape life after Pep Guardiola.
Maresca moves quickly in Guardiola’s shadow
City have reached an agreement on compensation with Chelsea and are set to confirm Maresca as their new manager, the man chosen to step into the space Guardiola leaves behind. It is the most daunting job in English football right now: follow a legend who turned City into the dominant force in the country and a benchmark in Europe.
Others have tried similar feats. David Moyes at Manchester United. Unai Emery at Arsenal. Both walked into dressing rooms still echoing with the voices of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger and discovered how unforgiving that comparison can be.
Maresca appears determined not to repeat that mistake. He wants his own players, his own lieutenants, his own version of City.
He has already been linked with moves for Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez, two of the brightest assets he left behind at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, though, have drawn a hard line. Palmer is viewed as “untouchable”, while Real Madrid lead the chase for Fernandez, who is pushing for a move away.
So Maresca has turned to another of his former charges.
Gusto on the radar as Palestra slips away
Malo Gusto has emerged as a serious target. The 23-year-old, signed by Chelsea from Lyon in 2023 for around £31m, has grown into a mainstay at Stamford Bridge, racking up 134 appearances over the past three seasons and maturing into one of the Premier League’s most dynamic full-backs.
Chelsea are not closing the door. Reports this week suggested the club would listen to offers for Gusto, and with Marco Palestra heading to west London instead of Manchester, the situation has sharpened.
City had been in the race for Inter Milan defender Palestra, only to be forced to look elsewhere once Chelsea agreed a £51m deal. That decision has pushed Gusto higher up their list.
Chelsea, preparing to welcome Palestra, are understood to want at least £40m to even consider selling Gusto. For a club that has invested heavily in reshaping its defence, cashing in on a valuable asset while another arrives is a tempting piece of business logic. For Maresca, it is an opportunity to import a player who already understands his demands.
A World Cup shop window
Gusto’s profile is only growing. He is currently at the World Cup with a heavily fancied France squad and came off the bench in their 3–0 win over Iraq on Monday. Every minute he plays on that stage nudges his value and his visibility up another notch.
For City, that means one thing: move decisively, or risk losing another defensive target.
Midfield still the priority – but the right-back question looms
All this unfolds while City’s main transfer priority remains elsewhere. The champions-elect of the Guardiola era, who still managed a domestic cup double last season despite missing out on the league by seven points to Arsenal, are fixated on reinforcing midfield.
Elliot Anderson, England’s World Cup breakout star, sits at the top of their list. City are weighing up a third bid after Nottingham Forest rejected a second offer worth £120m. That saga will dominate much of their summer.
Yet modern City sides are built on the reliability of their full-backs. From João Cancelo to Kyle Walker, Guardiola’s system relied on wide defenders who could step into midfield, dictate tempo, and suffocate transitions. Maresca, steeped in that ideology, will not treat the right-back position as an afterthought.
Gusto fits that template: athletic, aggressive, technically assured, and already versed in Maresca’s positional demands from their time together at Chelsea.
A new era, familiar ambition
Maresca’s Chelsea stint ended abruptly in January, less than six months after he lifted the Club World Cup at the end of his first season in charge. Now he inherits a City side used to winning, used to pressure, used to expectation.
Guardiola’s final campaign fell short of the Premier League title, but City still collected two domestic trophies and finished within touching distance of Arsenal. This is not a rebuild from rubble; it is a recalibration at the top.
The Italian’s push for Gusto signals that he does not intend to simply preserve what Guardiola left behind. He wants to bend it, subtly but decisively, into his own image.
If City meet Chelsea’s price and prise Gusto away, it will be the first clear sign of how Maresca plans to redraw the Guardiola blueprint. If they hesitate and watch another target disappear to Stamford Bridge or elsewhere, the question will linger: how quickly can the new man really make this City side his own?
