Enzo Maresca to Replace Pep Guardiola at Manchester City

Enzo Maresca will take charge of Manchester City from the 2026/27 season, stepping into one of the most demanding and decorated jobs in modern football as Pep Guardiola prepares to walk away after a decade and 20 trophies at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola’s exit has triggered a broader changing of the guard. Pep Lijnders, brought in only last summer to work alongside the Catalan, will also leave at the end of the season, choosing not to stay on under the new regime.

A brief, intense spell for Lijnders

Lijnders arrived at City in June 2025, fresh from an acclaimed spell as Jürgen Klopp’s right-hand man at Liverpool. His move across the Premier League divide was one of the more intriguing subplots of Guardiola’s final years in Manchester: a high-energy, ideas-driven coach joining forces with one of the game’s great ideologues.

Those inside the club quickly felt his impact. Training sessions sharpened. Touchline instructions came with Klopp-like intensity, but framed within Guardiola’s positional play. It was a one-season collaboration, but hardly a quiet one.

Now it ends almost as quickly as it began.

With Guardiola confirming his decision to bring his 10-year reign to a close, City’s hierarchy set about drawing up a blueprint for the next era. Lijnders featured prominently in those early conversations. The club wanted him to stay.

Offered a future, choosing the exit

According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, City offered Lijnders a new long-term contract as part of the Maresca project. The plan was clear: the Dutchman would become one of the Italian’s key assistants, helping to smooth the transition from one tactical visionary to another.

He said no.

At 43, Lijnders has opted to step away rather than remain in the shadow of a new head coach. After years beside Klopp and then a season with Guardiola, the pull to forge his own path has won out over the security of a prominent role at one of the world’s richest clubs.

City, for their part, were keen to keep him. The decision is his.

Farewell at the Etihad

Lijnders will say his goodbyes on Sunday, after City’s final Premier League game of the season at home to Aston Villa. Players and staff will see off not only a manager who reshaped the club’s history, but an assistant whose stay was short, intense and, in the eyes of many inside the building, far too brief.

Guardiola heads for the exit with a decade of dominance behind him. Maresca prepares to walk into the spotlight. Lijnders, turning away from the comfort of the Etihad, goes in search of a new challenge of his own.

The next time he returns, will it be as an assistant again—or as the man in the opposite dugout?