Chelsea complete shock move for Man City treble winner as Pep Guardiola reacts
After yet another demanding Premier League season, footballers are now on international duty or enjoying a well-earned vacation during the off-season.
Over the next few weeks, a number of Chelsea players will compete on behalf of their country as they finalize plans to host Euro 2024 in Germany. The competition begins on July 15.
Chelsea will have a lot of action going on outside of the playing staff as they get ready for the upcoming season. Identifying transfer targets and evaluating the team to determine the players’ long-term plans will be part of that process.
As a result, reports about Chelsea have been abundant throughout the past day. Chelsea247 has examined a few of the most recent and added in our own perspective.
Former City man completes Chelsea move
Former City assistant manager Enzo Maresca has officially become the new head coach of Chelsea, just one year after leaving City.
The Italian coach was Pep Guardiola’s assistant for the treble-winning season before becoming manager of Leicester City last year. He led the Foxes to the Championship title as they earned promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
But he will now not be taking charge of Leicester against City next season, but will instead be in the dugout for Chelsea. He has signed a five-year deal at Stamford Bridge with the option for a further year.
MENSport says: It’s certainly one of the moves of the summer that wasn’t expected, but it was Maresca’s possession-based style, similar to that of Guardiola that is said to have attracted Chelsea. It will be interesting to see how he gets on at Stamford Bridge with the Blues having a hire them and fire them reputation – there is a debate on if he may have been better building up more experience at Leicester before making a big move.
At Leicester, he made the most of his connections at City with a loan deal for defender Callum Doyle. But City may be less willing to help him now he’s at Chelsea.