Malo Gusto: Enzo Maresca's Target for Manchester City
Enzo Maresca has not even been unveiled at the Etihad yet, but his influence on Manchester City’s transfer plans is already being felt – and it leads straight back to Chelsea.
According to reports, Maresca is urging City to move for Malo Gusto, the French right-back he worked with at Stamford Bridge, as he prepares to step into one of the most daunting jobs in modern football: succeeding Pep Guardiola.
Maresca looks to his Chelsea past
City have reached an agreement on compensation with Chelsea and are poised to confirm Maresca as their new manager. The Italian left his role in west London in January, just months after lifting the Club World Cup in his first season at the club, and has now agreed to follow Guardiola as the next man in the Etihad dugout.
History offers a warning. Manchester United and Arsenal both stumbled when the era-defining figures of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger walked away. David Moyes and Unai Emery discovered, brutally, how hard it is to follow a legend.
Maresca clearly intends to put his own stamp on City quickly. He has already been linked with raids on his former club for Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez. Palmer, though, is considered “untouchable” by the Chelsea hierarchy, while Real Madrid are leading the chase for Fernandez, who is pushing for a move.
So attention has turned to another of Maresca’s former players.
Gusto emerges as a live target
Malo Gusto has surged towards the top of City’s defensive shortlist. talkSPORT report that Maresca wants the 23-year-old as part of his rebuild, with Chelsea prepared to listen at the right price.
That price will not be cheap. Chelsea are said to want at least £40m for Gusto as they prepare to complete a £51m deal for Inter Milan defender Marco Palestra, a player City had also tracked before being beaten to his signature.
Gusto joined Chelsea from Lyon in 2023 for £31m and has since become a fixture in their side. Across the past three seasons he has racked up 134 appearances, a heavy workload for a young full-back still refining his game at the top level.
His profile is attractive: quick, aggressive in the press, and comfortable on the ball – qualities that dovetail neatly with the possession-heavy, front-foot style City have cultivated under Guardiola and which Maresca, a disciple of that philosophy, is expected to continue.
Gusto’s rise has not been confined to club level. He is currently at the World Cup with a highly fancied France squad and came off the bench in their 3-0 win over Iraq on Monday, another marker in a rapidly accelerating career.
City’s wider transfer picture
Right-back is not the only area on City’s agenda. Their main priority this summer remains a new midfielder, with England World Cup standout Elliot Anderson identified as their top target.
City are weighing up a third offer for Anderson after Nottingham Forest rejected a second bid worth £120m. It is a bold pursuit, a statement of intent that underlines how determined the Premier League giants are to refresh a squad that, while still decorated, showed signs of strain last season.
Guardiola’s final campaign at the Etihad did not deliver the Premier League title. City finished seven points behind new champions Arsenal, a rare slip in domestic dominance from a side that still managed a domestic cup double.
Maresca inherits a squad used to winning and a club used to setting the pace. The Italian’s challenge is to keep them there while reshaping the team in his own image.
If City can prise Malo Gusto away from Chelsea, that process will begin with a familiar face on the right flank – and an early sign that Maresca is not afraid to reach back into his past to secure his future.
