Enzo Maresca is only the latest Pep Guardiola clone – the problem is, they can’t all win

The new Chelsea manager previously led City’s Elite Development Squad, and even worked as Guardiola’s assistant coach

Pep Guardiola’s closest challenger last season was his former assistant, Mikel Arteta. The Bundesliga was won by a team managed by one of his former players, Xabi Alonso, just as the previous season’s LaLiga had been, in Xavi. The Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024 were claimed by Erik ten Hag, who was nicknamed “mini Pep” when he was in charge of Bayern Munich’s second team while the Catalan looked after the senior squad.

The Guardiolaisation of football is most apparent in England. The Manchester City manager’s greatest rival, and stylistic opposite, Jurgen Klopp is gone and his replacement is a self-professed Guardiola fan, in Arne Slot. Tottenham are under a graduate of the City Football Group, in Ange Postecoglou; so are England, temporarily, with Lee Carsley having arrived in Manchester in the same summer as Guardiola.

Then there is Chelsea. Enzo Maresca has been in charge of City’s Elite Development Squad (EDS). He was Guardiola’s assistant manager in the treble-winning season of 2022/23. He even looks a bit like Guardiola.

And while the new Chelsea manager’s group is vast – “If you see the depth of the squad, they have more than 40 players,” said Guardiola – there is a sizeable contingent of City old boys: this summer’s signing Tosin Adarabioyo; Cole Palmer, who played for Maresca in the EDS; Romeo Lavia, who did likewise and was particularly prominent in pre-season; and Raheem Sterling.

There will be a bit of City to Chelsea. “There is something of that but it remains Chelsea,” said Guardiola. “So of course a few players were here, they work really, really well. But it is the Chelsea team, not the Man City team with his ideas.”

Yet the size and breadth of Guardiola’s managerial family tree suggests that other clubs hope his ideas prove infectious: that the best way of beating the Catalan is to copy him. That Maresca is the sixth man to take charge of Chelsea in the Clearlake Capital era – after Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor, Frank Lampard and Mauricio Pochettino – may suggest they have tried many another strategy.

Guardiola hinted he fears the impatience of the Chelsea board could pose a problem for Maresca; the Italian has a five-year contract, but then so did Potter. “My advice is give him time, if the owners from Chelsea accept my advice,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know if Chelsea is the place to do this, but give him time and he will work.”

Enzo Maresca during Chelsea’s pre-season (Getty Images)

It may not help Maresca’s cause that his reign begins against City; a 4-2 defeat in pre-season came even when the Chelsea club website attributed all four goals to errors by Maresca’s players.

He came to Stamford Bridge with a relatively slim body of work as a manager in his own right: 14 games at Parma, plus a promotion-winning season at Leicester. The sacked Pochettino had a greater pedigree. It gives the impression that Chelsea believed Guardiola’s magic will rub off on Maresca.

“I don’t think so,” Guardiola said. “I would like to say yes, but the job Enzo has done in Leicester belongs absolutely to him, to his backroom staff and his players. My influence in how Leicester was promoted to the Premier League was zero. I didn’t score one goal, I didn’t save anything, I didn’t have any idea.”

But, Guardiola argued, Maresca contributed to the glory in his time at City. Their relationship, he felt, was more than just master and apprentice. “I said many times: when we are in with my staff, it is not just one direction,” he added. “I give the info but they give it to me, too, and I learn from them ... and the success for the people who were together belongs to them.”

Pep Guardiola is aiming to lead Man City to a fifth straight Premier League title (The FA via Getty Images)

That some of Guardiola’s old boys have had success without him offers a hint that some of his methods may be transferable. His ideas feel still more dominant in a division stripped of Klopp and Pochettino. Maresca’s more measured build-up, inverted full-backs and fondness for 4-3-3 are Guardiola-esque. And yet, Maresca noted, the City manager’s ideas are not frozen in time.

Guardiola can evolve to stay ahead of the game. “Pep is not a manager that is always doing the same; he is always changing, and with us it will be exactly the same,” said the Chelsea manager. But then Stamford Bridge is the place of constant change, with another 10 signings this summer, and with a new face in the dugout.

And if the aim is to replicate the success Maresca’s mentor has had at City, now there are so many Guardiola clones there isn’t room for them all to flourish.