Rarely will you hear a Premier League head coach tell a journalist he is jealous of him, but halfway through this conversation with Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca in Atlanta, we find the 44-year-old Italian staring at the head full of hair in front of him.
‘My wife, she would love that,’ he says before directing our attention to his bald scalp and stylish beard. ‘Unfortunately, I am like this, so everyone is thinking…’
That you’re pretending to be Pep Guardiola? ‘Is it something annoying? No. Because in the end, I have my wife, I have my kids, I have my family. We are all different.’
Maresca says he is his own man in spite of the ‘Diet Pep’ nickname. Yet that does not mean he is not inspired by Manchester City’s manager. The evening before we meet in the opulent cigar bar of the St Regis Hotel, he was on the phone to Guardiola, who he previously assisted at City.
‘When I joined Chelsea, he was very happy because he is sure with timing, we can build something important,’ Maresca says. ‘If I am where I am now, it is because of him.
Enzo Maresca (right) used to work under Pep Guardiola at Man City and has been accused of pretending to be his mentor
Maresca admits he and Guardiola may be bald, but insists he is not trying to copy the City boss
‘I fell in love with that idea. I was 28. I faced Barcelona. I realised it was not the same playing against another team. I was still playing (for Sevilla) and I was already analysing games and watching training sessions on YouTube because I fell in love immediately. It’s like when you see your wife and or your kids. I fell in love. But unfortunately, we are the same.’
Again, he is showing us his baldness. ‘But it's normal,’ he continues. ‘For instance, Willy Caballero is my assistant. In one or two years, if he joins another club, for sure they are going to ask him, "Do you have the same idea?” Because he was working with me. It’s normal.
‘When I joined Leicester and met the chairman and sporting director, they said, “We want to play the same way that City play.” I told them, "We don't have the same players, and I am not the same manager." The same thing when I met Chelsea. I said, “The idea is that idea, but probably we need time because the players also need to understand what way we want to play and it’s different.”
‘This is something I struggle a little bit with. “Because he's bald and with a beard, he wants to play the same.” No, I don't. I fell in love with that idea, but that does not mean it is exactly the same.’
Maresca was appointed by Chelsea in June, signing a five-year contract with the option of an additional year. He reveals here that another Premier League club tried to poach him before all was finalised. Sworn to secrecy, we will leave you to guess who out of Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Manchester United, who were previously interviewing potential candidates.
Maresca did not even take a laptop to his first interview with Chelsea. He first wanted to hear what they had to say. ‘They wanted it to be more aggressive,’ he says of the style of play they were craving on and off the ball, with owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart leading the recruitment process. ‘I was exactly what they were looking for.’
Maresca has been urged to make Chelsea's style of play 'more aggressive' by club chiefs
Maresca believes he is 'exactly' what sporting directors Paul Winstanley (left) and Laurence Stewart (right) were looking for to take the club forward
Unlike Antonio Conte, who sang Neapolitan favourite Malafemmena, Maresca jokes he inserted a clause into his Chelsea contract so he did not have to do an initiation song. ‘If someone said that singing would make us win the title, then I am going to sing every night,’ he adds.
Maresca’s Leicester played Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea in the FA Cup’s quarter-finals in March, losing 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. Maresca prepared for that match by watching Chelsea's last six games. 'I was talking with my staff and saying, "You can build something important with the players Chelsea have," he says, before watching many more after being appointed.
‘I almost never saw man-to-man high pressing. Since we started, we have decided to go man-to-man because it is our way; aggressive. It's not only on the ball. It's a big change.
‘For me, the big difference between us and the teams that dominate – City and Arsenal – is that one club is with the same manager eight years and the other five years. We have had two or three weeks. I am 100 per cent sure we are on the right path.’
Maresca signed for West Brom from Cagliari at the age of 18 in 1998. Graham Potter was not only his team-mate. He was his chauffeur. ‘I was living very close to Graham's house but I didn't have a driving licence so he would take me to training every morning,' he says, smiling. ‘When I met him again when he was at Brighton or Chelsea, I was joking saying, "You were my driver!”
'I spoke with him a few times last year when I was at Leicester but since I've been at Chelsea, I haven't spoken to him. I spoke with Claudio Ranieri but just because I spoke with him when I joined Leicester. He told me only good things. Claudio is a gentleman. He struggles to speak badly about someone. I don’t have any doubt that we can have an impact. It’s a matter of time.’
Maresca believes he can make a positive impact at Chelsea quickly despite the club's struggles
Potter also signed a five-year deal when appointed at Chelsea and privately, the club want to give him time to instil his philosophy. Taking inspiration from Manuel Pellegrini and Carlo Ancelotti, Maresca wants his players to see him as a ‘family relation’, patting the seat of the leather sofa next to him. Approachable, in other words.
Though we are in the cigar room, we have resisted the urge to puff on one. At $65 for a Davidoff Aniversario Series No 3 Tubos, the expenses team might have been emailing me.
But Maresca loves a cigar. ‘I love Partagas because it's from my dad,’ he says, adding he’s got a specific one in mind for when he wins his first trophy with his new club. Certainly, after nearly an hour in his company, you begin to see why Chelsea decided he was their chosen one.