Maresca's Manchester City Rebuild: Focus on Chelsea's Gusto
Enzo Maresca has not even been unveiled at the Etihad Stadium yet, but the shape of his Manchester City rebuild is already starting to show — and his gaze has turned firmly back towards Chelsea.
The Italian, who walked away from Stamford Bridge in January, is on the brink of being confirmed as Pep Guardiola’s successor after City agreed compensation with Chelsea. Stepping into Guardiola’s shadow is one of the most daunting jobs in modern football. Manchester United and Arsenal know all about the turbulence that follows a legendary reign, with David Moyes and Unai Emery both buckling under the weight of comparison to Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger.
Maresca is determined not to repeat that story. He wants his own players, his own dressing room voices, his own imprint on a squad that has dominated English football for years.
Maresca’s Chelsea link: Palmer, Enzo… and now Gusto
Early whispers around the Etihad linked Maresca with two of his former Chelsea stars: Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernández. Palmer has exploded into a central figure at Stamford Bridge and the Chelsea hierarchy now consider him “untouchable”. Fernández, restless and eyeing a new challenge, has Real Madrid at the front of the queue for his signature.
So Maresca has turned to another familiar face.
According to talkSPORT, the 46-year-old is pushing City to move for Malo Gusto, the French right-back he worked with in west London. Chelsea are braced for interest and, with their own defensive reshuffle under way, they are not shutting the door entirely.
Gusto would not come cheap. Chelsea are understood to want at least £40m for the defender, a figure shaped by their incoming deal for Inter Milan’s Marco Palestra. City had been in the race for Palestra, only to watch Chelsea close in on a £51m agreement that forced the Premier League champions-in-waiting to look elsewhere.
One of those alternatives now sits in their former manager’s contact book.
Gusto’s rise and Chelsea’s dilemma
Gusto arrived at Chelsea from Lyon in 2023 for £31m and has since grown into a fixture on the team sheet. Over the past three seasons he has racked up 134 appearances, a remarkable level of involvement for a player still only 23.
His development has carried him all the way to the World Cup. He is currently in camp with a heavily fancied France squad and came off the bench in their 3-0 win over Iraq on Monday, a reminder of his standing on the international stage.
Chelsea’s stance on Gusto has softened in recent weeks. Reports earlier in the week suggested the club were no longer ruling out a summer sale, especially with Palestra on his way to west London. The equation is simple: one highly valued right-back in, one potentially out, if the price is right.
For City, the attraction is obvious. Gusto offers energy, athleticism and the tactical flexibility that has long underpinned Guardiola’s best sides — qualities Maresca, steeped in that same positional-play philosophy, will want to preserve.
City’s summer priorities
Right-back, though, is not the only position on City’s shopping list.
The club’s main focus remains the heart of midfield, where England World Cup standout Elliot Anderson has emerged as their primary target. City are weighing up a third offer for the Nottingham Forest midfielder after seeing a second bid, worth £120m, knocked back.
It is an aggressive move, the kind that signals continuity rather than retreat after Guardiola’s departure. Maresca is not inheriting a broken squad. City won a domestic cup double last season and stayed in the title race until the final stretch, finishing seven points behind new champions Arsenal after Guardiola fell short of the Premier League crown in his final campaign.
Yet the new man clearly wants more than a gentle handover. He wants to bend this team towards his own ideas.
If City push ahead with a formal move for Gusto, it will say plenty about how Maresca sees the next evolution of this side: younger legs in wide defensive areas, technically secure, drilled in modern patterns of play, and familiar enough with his methods to hit the ground running.
Replacing a legend is never simple. Maresca’s answer is to make sure he is not just borrowing Guardiola’s team, but building his own. Whether Chelsea are prepared to help him do that by handing over Malo Gusto is about to become one of the summer’s more intriguing transfer questions.
