The Athletic's resident renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, exclusively reported on Thursday that Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has been highly preferred by Manchester City's management as its manager, Pep Guardiola's potential successor.

According to Ornstein, with the 2025/26 season nearly halfway through and Guardiola's contract expiring in the summer of 2027, but he has yet to definitively state whether he will renew his contract, Manchester City's management has already been preparing for the possibility of Guardiola stepping down next summer for some time now.

He said, Manchester City didn't only recognize Enzo Maresca's coaching abilities after he succesfully led Chelsea to the FIFA Club World Cup title win this summer; on the contrary, the Italian coach had already been considered a top candidate early on.

Ornstein revealed that the connection between Maresca, Guardiola, and Manchester City can be traced back to some time ago.

In August 2020, Maresca was appointed manager of Manchester City's U23s team, having already caught the eye of former sporting director Txiki Begiristain.

During this time, he made significant contributions to the development of its youth academy's wonderkids, such as Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, James Trafford, and Rico Lewis.

The following year, he was also appointed manager of Parma through Guardiola's recommendation.

Although Maresca was later sacked due to poor results, Guardiola immediately considered appointing him as his new assistant coach.

Even after Maresca left Manchester City in the summer of 2023 to manage at Leicester City and Chelsea successively, his relationship with Guardiola remained unchanged.

This summer, after Maresca signed with Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes, his connections with Manchester City have become even closer and more frequent, as Mendes also represents Hugo Viana, Manchester City's new sporting director.

Following this, Ornstein's industry colleague, Sky Sports' renowned Italian transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano also confirmed the news.

Romano added that this does not mean Chelsea will immediately sack Maresca, nor does Manchester City intend to immediately appoint him to replace Guardiola. Ornstein's report is simply a factual account of the current situation of the two clubs and the two individuals.

He said, until the end of the season, unless unforeseen circumstances arise, the current situation of Maresca, Pep Guardiola, Chelsea, and the Manchester City managerial team will remain unchanged.

Manchester City will only formally consider further negotiations and the appointment of Maresca as their new manager after Guardiola have clearly stated his intention to step down.

Meanwhile, Maresca is the only coach so far to have been officially recognized by the 2023/24 Premier League champions as Guardiola's potential successor.

Other coaches' names, which were rumoured online, especially Zinedine Zidane, are fake news.