Enzo Maresca is set to become the Manchester City manager, but the club has still not announced him as Pep Guardiola’s successor. That leaves City preparing for August with the outgoing manager already gone and the new one still not formally in place.
Guardiola departed at the end of last season, and Maresca has emerged as the preferred candidate to fill the role he left behind. He is understood to be willing to take the job, while negotiations with Chelsea continue to rumble on.
Friday fixture list
The fixture list was confirmed on Friday morning, giving City a start that looks manageable on paper. They begin at home against Bournemouth, then go to Crystal Palace, before returning to the Etihad Stadium for a meeting with newly promoted Coventry. Three matches in, seven points is the target the opening run points toward if City handle the schedule as expected.
The sequence is also the first practical test of how quickly a new manager can settle in. City have not played at the Etihad Stadium on the opening weekend since Guardiola’s Premier League debut, so the opener against Bournemouth brings a familiar setting but an unusual context.
Old Trafford on matchday four
Matchday four sends City to Old Trafford, where Manchester United beat them relatively comfortably in January. That early away trip adds pressure to the transition, because it comes just as the season starts to harden and the first decisions from the new head coach begin to matter.
The schedule only gets heavier from there. City will play eight Champions League games, and the domestic list includes difficult fixtures away to Manchester United and Aston Villa, plus home games against Chelsea and Arsenal, with both Arsenal meetings sitting before or after Champions League matches.
Maresca and Chelsea
For Maresca, the delay is the point. City are already planning around his arrival, but the formal step has yet to arrive, and the talks with Chelsea remain unresolved. Until that changes, Guardiola’s successor is a name attached to the job rather than the man officially in it.
City now have the fixture list, the opening run, and the tougher stretches mapped out. What they do not yet have is the announcement that turns expectation into an appointment.
