Enzo Maresca Takes Charge of Manchester City for 2026/27 Season

Enzo Maresca will take charge of Manchester City from the 2026/27 season, stepping into one of the most demanding roles in modern football as Pep Guardiola’s decade-long reign comes to an end.

Guardiola’s departure after 10 years and 20 trophies at the Etihad Stadium has triggered a seismic reshaping of the club’s technical area. It will not just be the Catalan walking away. Pep Lijnders, his assistant for a single, breathless season, is also heading for the exit.

Lijnders chooses his own road

Lijnders arrived at City in June 2025, carrying the weight and glow of his work alongside Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. He was brought in as Guardiola’s assistant, a high-energy presence on the training pitch and a sharp tactical mind in the background of a machine already running at full tilt.

City’s hierarchy saw him as a key part of the future. Once Guardiola informed the club he would end his legendary spell, the board moved quickly to sketch out life without the man who had defined an era. Those plans, initially, had Lijnders at their core.

According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, City offered the 43-year-old a new long-term contract. With Enzo Maresca expected to become the new manager, the idea was simple: blend Maresca’s ideas with Lijnders’ inside knowledge of the current squad and the club’s methods. The Dutchman would become one of the Italian’s assistants and help smooth a potentially turbulent transition.

He said no.

Not because City no longer valued him, but because he does not want to remain an eternal No 2 under a new regime. After a year inside Guardiola’s inner circle, Lijnders has decided to step away and forge his own path, rather than slot into a fresh hierarchy.

End of an intense cameo

His time at the Etihad has been brief, but hardly quiet. One season, packed with expectation, pressure and the unique demands of working beside Guardiola at the peak of his powers. Those inside the club saw a coach who matched the pace, matched the intensity, and added his own detail to the day-to-day.

Yet as Guardiola’s exit loomed, the crossroads arrived quickly. Stay and serve under Maresca, or leave with the man who brought him in. Lijnders chose the latter.

City, for their part, wanted him to stay. The offer of a long-term deal underlines that. But the dugout is about more than contracts; it is about ambition, identity, and timing. For Lijnders, the moment to step out from the shadows has clearly come.

Farewell at the Etihad

The goodbye will be swift and symbolic. After the final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa at home on Sunday, Lijnders will say his farewells to players and staff. No long drawn-out farewell tour, just one last matchday at a stadium that has grown used to relentless success.

Then he will go in search of a new challenge elsewhere this summer, taking with him a unique blend of Klopp and Guardiola schooling and the conviction that he is ready to lead in his own right.

City, meanwhile, move towards the Maresca era without the man they hoped would bridge old and new. A decade of Guardiola, a year of Lijnders, and now a clean slate for a club that has grown used to certainty. The next question is simple and brutal: can the new faces on the touchline live up to a standard that has become the benchmark for an entire league?