Enzo Maresca to Chelsea continues football’s newest trend – work for Pep Guardiola to claim top job

It is a measure of Pep Guardiola’s success and reputation that the sheer fact of working with him, of basking in his genius, has become enough to make you qualified for a significant coaching job elsewhere. Keen to get into management? The quickest way to an attractive head coach’s job is to get a role on Guardiola’s staff first.

The latest example, of course, is Enzo Maresca. Chelsea’s new head coach spent the 2022-23 season as Guardiola’s assistant, and was then appointed Leicester City manager in June 2023. A year later, he has signed a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal’s executives were even more bold than Chelsea have been. They appointed Mikel Arteta in December 2019, plucking him directly from Guardiola’s dugout, despite the Spaniard having no managerial experience at all. Arsenal, it should not be forgotten, is Arteta’s first job as a manager.

That particular appointment, clearly, has been enormously successful – and Chelsea are hoping that Maresca will prove as successful as Arteta at blending his own ideas with the lessons he learned from Guardiola.

With each passing year, Guardiola’s web of influence grows larger. The Manchester City manager has transformed the world of football and, across the game, his disciples are now beginning to have their own impact.

It is not only Arteta and Maresca who are making their way in the Premier League. Manchester United’s Erik ten Hag also learned from Guardiola, as he was the Bayern Munich reserve-team coach while Guardiola managed the senior side. It was a similar story for Luis Enrique, the current Paris St-Germain manager. He worked as the manager of Barcelona’s B team during Guardiola’s tenure at the Nou Camp.

Tito Vilanova, Guardiola’s assistant at Barcelona, went on to lead the first team himself. Domènec Torrent, another of Guardiola’s assistants, has managed New York City, Flamengo and Galatasaray in recent years.

And then there are those who played for Guardiola before moving into coaching themselves. Xabi Alonso, perhaps the most exciting young manager in football, is the standout figure in this category, but special mentions should also go to Xavi Hernandez, recently departed from Barcelona, and Vincent Kompany, who has swapped Burnley for Bayern.

Elsewhere, Rafa Marquez is in charge of Barcelona B. Thierry Henry manages France’s under-21s and under-23s, while Sylvinho leads Albania. Gabriel Milito is in charge of Atletico Mineiro and Cesc Fabregas is showing coaching potential at Como.

Take another step back and it becomes clear that it is not just Guardiola’s influence at play, but also that of the City Football Group as a whole. The group owns clubs across the world and their alumni are having an increasingly big say on the European game.

Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach, worked for the City Football Group when he managed Yokohama Marinos. Andoni Iraola, now at Bournemouth, played for New York City FC. Patrick Vieira worked at Manchester City and New York City before moving onto Nice, Crystal Palace and now Strasbourg.

The web of Guardiola, and that wider web of the City Football Group, is increasingly hard to ignore. It says much about the effectiveness of the City organisation, and the brilliance of Guardiola himself, that so many clubs now want one of his disciples for their own.