With the appointment of Enzo Maresca, the Leicester City hierarchy went some way to restoring faith in their decision-making.
City’s relegation from such a position of strength saw supporters take aim at the club’s directors. In the space of two seasons, City had gone from Champions League challengers to the Championship, and fans were, for the first time, seriously questioning if those in charge were up to the task.
The first significant job of the rebuild in the second tier was to name a new boss. Their decision has been a masterstroke. There were plenty of managers around who have achieved Championship promotion before, the sort of names that crop up every time there’s a vacancy.
City could have opted for one of those names and potentially still been successful. But they thought outside the box, handing the reins to a man who had only had one, short-lived spell as a senior manager before, but a man who had big ideas.
It’s paid off hugely. Maresca has quickly established a clear style of play, one that is earning the victories to set City on course for a record points total. But he’s not a clinical, results-orientated robot. There’s a passion and a romanticism there in how he gets his team to celebrate with supporters and to give them more enjoyable experiences and longer-lasting memories.
City have something special under Maresca. They don’t want to lose that. And especially with previous issues rearing their head again.
There was the first sign of a small problem brewing when Maresca revealed last week that he had not been told until the first week of January that City needed to sell before they could buy. This was reminiscent of the summer of 2022, when Brendan Rodgers, planning a “healthy shake-up” of the squad, returned from his holiday to be told the same thing.
Of course, with City still seven points clear at the top of the Championship, it’s far less of a problem this time. Even if City do no business this month, they will still be favourites to earn promotion.
The issue is not even that money is tight. That’s understandable. Without Premier League money coming in, and with a big wage bill, dropping to the Championship meant big adjustments were needed. It was always possible that City would be on the line of what is allowed, and what they can afford.
But the manager should be told that. The internal communication needs to be clear. What City now have is a manager who thought that his only issue in the January window was getting players out of the door to free up space in his 25-man squad. Now, he says he was told in the first week of January, after the window had opened, that sales were in fact required if City were to bring anybody else in. That can leave him more disappointed and frustrated than if he’s just informed of the situation straight out of the gate. It’s not a good look for the club.
