- 2 days ago
Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca on Bournemouth, transfers and his hopes for the new season
City Football Academy, Manchester, UK
City Football Academy, Manchester, UK
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00:00Premier League season, what's your mood now? Is it excitement?
00:03Is it looking forward to taking this group on to the next stage?
00:06How do you view the season to come?
00:07Very excited, as you said, very excited to start this new chapter, this new journey.
00:15The target is to carry on in the same way of the last 10-15 years.
00:23So, we're also happy to finally play our first game at home.
00:28So, yeah, excited.
00:29And ahead of that first game against Bournemouth, what's the team news going into this weekend?
00:34At the moment, the only one is Jeremy Doku, then Mateus is back.
00:43Yeah, Jeremy and the rest, they are all OK.
00:47And on Bournemouth, obviously they've had some change this summer, a new manager,
00:50presumably a new style of play. How do you approach this? How do you prepare for them?
00:54Yeah, I watch the game. I watch the game, the pre-season game.
00:57I also watch some games from last season where he was in another club.
01:02And you can see clearly, you know, the identity, very aggressive team.
01:06They were already very aggressive with Adoni and now they are still aggressive.
01:13So, it's quite clear what they do on the ball and off the ball.
01:19Hi, Enzo. So, Rodri has now left the club and I'm sure that the club are going to miss him
01:24a lot.
01:25I know you said you would have liked him to stay, but it seemed he'd made his mind up.
01:29But was there ever any realistic chance of him staying? Did you try to persuade him to stay?
01:35It's quite clear when players want to leave and then it's difficult for any reason they want to leave.
01:45Then it's complicated to convince them to stay or to change their thoughts.
01:50So, it happened with Rodri, the same thing is happening with Savinho.
01:57Since day one he asked me that he wants to leave.
01:59So, now we are waiting.
02:01But it's complicated, you know, when the players are thinking that they need a new challenge
02:06or they want to change because they want probably back to Spain
02:12or they want to play more minutes for different reasons.
02:16So, it's become complicated then to convince them to, you know, to stay.
02:21OK, you mentioned Savinho there, but, you know, Reinders has also gone.
02:25There's a talk of Nico Gonzalez, possibly Omar Mamouche.
02:28Why are so many players leaving at the moment? Are you happy about this?
02:32Yeah, probably. Unless Rodri, the rest, they have all in common one thing,
02:35that they didn't play a lot.
02:38So, at the end, we said many times, we just finished a session
02:41and they all work every day because, at the end, they want to play.
02:45And when they don't play, probably they want to, you know, they prefer to leave.
02:49So, the ones that you mentioned, probably, unless Rodri,
02:53the rest, they are all players that, for different reasons, they didn't play a lot.
02:58So, picking up on that end zone, do you expect Omar Mamouche to leave?
03:03Is that deal with Spurs going to happen, do you think, at this stage?
03:06I don't know. Omar is still here, he's still with us.
03:09It's a different situation than Savio, and we'll see what's happening.
03:14Is he a more difficult one to let go with the challenge of having to try and sign
03:18a replacement striker with 11 days to go of this window?
03:24I think it's always complicated when players are leaving
03:26and someone has to arrive, if you are not ready.
03:30But we'll see if Omar stays or we'll see what's happening.
03:35For sure, we are going to have more options in case players go out.
03:41As I said already a few times, if they go out, some have to arrive.
03:45Given there are only now 11 days of this transfer window left,
03:50do you have any concerns that you are, as a club, leaving it very late
03:54to build the squad you'll need to compete for the Premier League title?
03:57No, I'm not worried, I'm not concerned.
04:03Since day one, we know exactly what we need.
04:08We are working together with the sports director, with the club.
04:14And again, it's 10 days to go, 11 days to go, and many things can happen.
04:20Just regarding City's interest in Enzo Fernandes, just from your understanding,
04:25where do you guys sit with that with the Chelsea deadline having passed
04:28and do you expect to still push for Enzo having played with him at Chelsea?
04:33Unfortunately, I need to answer always in the same way.
04:35Enzo is a Chelsea player and I'm not going to talk about players that are not with us.
04:43First of all, because I think it's lack of respect.
04:45And second, because I don't like when different managers talk about our players.
04:54Considering the result against Arsenal last weekend,
04:58the number of changes in the squad, new managers as well,
05:02is time and patience going to be key?
05:04I think you'll get that.
05:07Say again, sorry.
05:08Is time and patience going to be key?
05:13It's clear that there are changes, managers, players.
05:18But we are a club that we cannot wait for time to compete.
05:24So, we need to compete since they won.
05:27Since they won.
05:28Again, Arsenal game, we wanted to win.
05:31We didn't win after analysing the game for different reasons.
05:35Now the focus has to be just about Bournemouth, Premier League and all the games that we have had.
05:42How important is it for people to stay calm, not just yourself, players and fans as well?
05:48Very important.
05:49For sure it's very important because we know that when we win games, fans are happy.
05:53But I'm happy when we win games.
05:55When we don't win, everyone is upset.
05:58You, you know, you sleep less.
06:02Many things when you don't win games.
06:04That's why it's important also to win games because we all are more happy.
06:08But no doubt that we are going to win games.
06:11As you've mentioned, there's been a few exits so far.
06:15Might be a few more going out.
06:17What's the minimum number you'd like to bring in before the end of the transfer window?
06:21We don't have minimum number or maximum number.
06:24It depends a little bit.
06:26As I said after the last game, in case, you know, you win games or you lose games,
06:32we are not going to change our perspective or our idea on how many players we need.
06:37We know exactly what we need, how many players we need.
06:41And then we'll see now in the next ten days.
06:45Enzo, you've had Phil Foden with you throughout, since you arrived.
06:50I mean, we saw training in South Korea.
06:53It looked like he had a really good session.
06:54Everyone always says that he trains really well.
06:57Thomas Tuchel said it in March that he's a brilliant trainer
06:59but hasn't been able to sort of replicate that on the pitch recently.
07:03How do you go about translating those performances behind closed doors to a Saturday?
07:10I think Phil, for me personally, had a good game against also in the last game.
07:16So you can see that he's sharp, he's good.
07:19And since day one, he looks very, very good.
07:22People that they are inside the building, they are saying to me that compared to Phil in the last year,
07:28or in the last two years, he's a completely different player in terms of mood,
07:32in terms of what is shown during the session.
07:35And this is what we want.
07:38Phil is from the academies, from the house.
07:40So it's nice also for everyone to see him getting better and better.
07:46And just looking at the way you've set up in the friendlies and the community shield,
07:52would it be fair to say that he's in sort of direct competition with Ryan Cherky
07:55for that spotting behind Haaland up front?
07:59Is that where you see him sort of playing?
08:01They can play together in different positions, they can play together,
08:04but for sure they are quite similar.
08:07And at the end, I think if you want to build an important team,
08:11you need competition inside the team.
08:14So it's good that Phil with Ryan, they have competition,
08:17but again, they can play also together in some games.
08:21Can I just ask a very quick one about...
08:22You mentioned Marmouche is different to Savinho,
08:25even though Spurs want to sign both of them.
08:28What's the reason for them being in different situations?
08:31Savio, since day one, asked to leave,
08:33and Omar didn't ask to leave.
08:35Since day one.
08:37Hasn't happened?
08:39Not yet.
08:42I watched the documentary the other night.
08:44I'm sure plenty of people have by now.
08:46And one thing that was interesting to me among many things
08:48was the club's data model that it uses to predict where it's going to be,
08:53looks at the squad, its quality compared to the rivals.
08:57Taking it away from AI and asking Enzo Marescu, the manager,
09:00how healthy is this squad to meet your expectations and your ambitions?
09:06I think we have a good squad, for sure.
09:11And it's a context, it's not an excuse, it's a context that when you made many changes,
09:18but not only the manager, how many years Rodri was here,
09:22John was here, Ake was here, Bernardo was here.
09:26It's a big change, but that means that we are not going to be ready to compete.
09:31We need to be ready to compete.
09:32I want to compete.
09:33And again, the reason why I'm here, because I want to try to win titles
09:37and to carry on with what this club, this organisation has done for the last 15 years.
09:42Where we are now, it's also a bit complicated because we started one month ago.
09:48But again, for sure the intention is to compete as soon as possible.
09:53And looking at the profile of recruitment,
09:55there's been a lot of talented young players that Man City have looked at,
09:58understandably so, thinking about building things for the future.
10:01Is there a desire for you to look at maybe a few more experienced players
10:07to replace some of the experience lost?
10:08Would that be of benefit?
10:12When players are good, they are good.
10:16I don't mind the age.
10:18Also in my previous experience, we are the youngest squad in the Premier League.
10:23But if they are good, they are good.
10:25For sure players with experience, they can give you different things.
10:29But again, we have 10 days to go and hopefully we can do the things that we plan.
10:35And just finally for me, looking back at the footage from the Arsenal game,
10:40you could maybe break down little moments of misunderstandings between players,
10:44which I think is natural given change and some in new clubs and things like that.
10:47How confident are you that that's a quick learning process
10:51to minimise little mistakes but that can lead to goals?
10:54No, no, we need to solve it very quickly because now we start games.
11:01We have two weeks, entire weeks, but then we are going to start every three days.
11:05So we need to solve problems as soon as possible.
11:09Again, the Arsenal game for me was for different reasons,
11:13but it's also normal at the beginning that there is some misunderstanding
11:18because most of the part for the players is something new.
11:24Enzo, just on the Jeremy Doku, how serious is his injury?
11:27How long do you think he will be out for?
11:29Unfortunately, in the last game, half-time, he was complaining about a little bit of pain in his scalp.
11:35And then the idea with him was to play in any case 45 minutes.
11:40So for him, the change was planned.
11:45And at the moment, it looks like two, three weeks, no more than that.
11:49Just in terms of yourself, you've got history with Manchester City.
11:53You left your last spelling three years ago.
11:56Just wondering, you've been here a few weeks now.
11:58What changes have you noticed since you came back to the club?
12:01The squad. 90% of the squad is not the squad of three years ago.
12:07I think there are three, four players.
12:09Then people inside the building, they are still the same.
12:12Most of the people inside the building, they were with me when I was here previously with EDS.
12:17So inside the building, it's quite familiar, family.
12:21The squad is 90% different.
12:27Yeah.
12:27Hi, Enzo.
12:28You mentioned wanting to continue the work the last 10, 15 years.
12:31It's an argument to say that the club is in the biggest state of flux in that sort of time
12:35span
12:36in the last 10 or 15 years with all the players that have left, etc.
12:39When you agreed to take this job, which I believe was kind of the new year or certainly the start
12:43of this year,
12:44did you understand it would have been such a state of flux change?
12:50First of all, the contact with the club was not at the beginning of the season,
12:59at the beginning of the year, it was almost at the end of the season.
13:03I knew exactly that there was change, not only the manager but also in terms of players.
13:11The good thing is that the club knows exactly where we are.
13:14This is the most important thing, what do we need.
13:17And the club, first of all, they know that we are changing and I was completely aware of that.
13:25So from your point of view, in English we sort of have a phrase,
13:28you can have a bit of a hospital pass.
13:30I don't know if you know this phrase in Italian where you're like,
13:32oh, thanks a lot, you've had to be this sort of thing.
13:34Is that how you're viewing this or is it optimistically as a great challenge?
13:38No, no, I said day one.
13:41I feel really, for me it's a privilege to be here.
13:45It's a huge club, huge organisation.
13:48I'm convinced because of the player and because of the club,
13:52because of what we can do, that we can achieve something important.
13:55Now it's normal that it's not something magic day after day.
13:59It's something that you need to build and we're going to build.
14:04Certainly Morgan there for 10.30pm on Saturday evening.
14:06I'll start with Sam.
14:08Hi Enzo.
14:09You're talking about the club and taking over and you need to start winning straight away
14:13and things like that.
14:14When you've spoken to the club about targets for this season
14:17and what would be a good season, have you had those conversations
14:20and would it be like trophies or league position or performances?
14:24How are they seeing it and what's the demand for you?
14:27At the beginning of the season you don't set a target in terms of trophies.
14:32The target since day one has been quite clear with the club, with the players,
14:35is to compete, to arrive March, April to be there and then we see what's happening.
14:43Obviously you've talked a lot about transfers earlier on and been asked a lot about transfers
14:47and how many players need to still come into the squad,
14:50but does it feel like something's a little bit missing at the moment?
14:54Obviously with the World Cup it's not been easy to do transfers early,
14:57but going into the season on Sunday there are obviously gaps in the squad
15:03and it looks like there's more players leaving than coming in.
15:06How does that feel heading into the season?
15:10I think it's a feeling for most of the club, not all the club,
15:14because some clubs probably prefer to do the business at the beginning
15:19or at the end of the previous season.
15:21I think we are almost in the same situation on the club.
15:24It's ten days to go, hopefully we can do the things that we need to do.
15:29That helps that there are players that for different reasons they want to leave,
15:34this is for sure, but we need to adapt
15:36and also we don't want to keep here players that they don't want to stay for sure.
15:42Listen to me.
15:42Amazing.
15:42Chemooh.
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