Leicester City’s Premier League plan B as Chelsea step up interest in Enzo Maresca

Leicester City are entering both familiar and new territory in planning Enzo Maresca’s potential exit to Chelsea.

Planning for the possibility is all the City can do at this point. Maresca is understood to be on the Stamford Bridge shortlist alongside Kieran McKenna and Thomas Frank, but City will not know for sure that Chelsea have chosen the Italian as their first-choice target until they announce their intention to meet his release clause of release. At that point, the decision rests with Maresca, and the dominoes could fall pretty quickly. So City must be ready.

Their only solution to prevent Chelsea from replacing Maresca would be to negotiate a new contract with the Italian and remove the release clause from his deal. But it doesn’t sound like something Maresca would agree with, so for now it’s a waiting game for City.

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In the past, when they made signings, City advertised themselves as a cornerstone. I’m the last rung on the ladder. Play well at the King Power Stadium and you’ll have the biggest clubs in Europe all to yourself.

The idea behind this is that, firstly, it allows City to recruit better players, those on the up and with the potential to reach the top of the game. Second, they can sell them to big-money clubs, giving them more money to invest and build a team capable of challenging the richest.

But since implementing this tactic, City have not been a stepping stone for managers. While they want ambitious coaches in charge of the club, people who want to take the club as high as possible, they prefer to avoid the disruption of seeing their manager poached by one of the top clubs. Which is why, when Arsenal were sniffing around Brendan Rodgers at the end of 2019, the Northern Irishman was offered a lucrative new deal at the club, just 10 months after initially joining.

Because while City would receive more than £8m if Chelsea met Maresca’s release clause – a significant sum for a manager – the compensation is far less and the disruption far greater than, say, then when Harry Maguire was sold to Manchester United for pounds. 80m. It is easier to introduce a new centre-back to the club than a new management team.

So she has to consider that he might leave, and she has to think about who she might turn to next. There is long-standing interest in Graham Potter, and the style of play he favored at Brighton could be a decent match for the philosophy introduced by Maresca, which could ease early woes as the club try to stay in the Premier League League. West Brom’s Carlos Corberan is also reportedly under consideration, with the Baggies one of the teams that have caused City the most problems at the King Power Stadium this season.

One problem is that the city’s financial problems are now public knowledge. The possibility of having to overcome a points deduction can make the club less attractive. They may have to target managers for whom the lure of the Premier League is simply too much, rather than those who would love to land a top-flight gig a few months into the season when they start dismissals.

But they have proven they are capable of appointing the right people in the past. The switch from Claude Puel to Rodgers was a very successful one, even if Northern Ireland’s spell ended badly. Bringing in Maresca, a meeting outside the box, paid off.

For the most part though, City will be hoping all their planning work goes to waste. It would be ideal not to lose Maresca. He has achieved his goal in his first season in charge, getting them promoted and there is a squad of players at the club who enjoy working under him. City have been a cornerstone many times before and they will deal with that, but it would put them on the back foot ahead of a big summer if they lose the Italian now.

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