Enzo Maresca to Succeed Pep Guardiola at Manchester City

Manchester City have their next era lined up. Enzo Maresca is set to take over from Pep Guardiola from the 2026/27 season, as the club prepares for life after the most successful manager in its history.

Guardiola’s decision to walk away after 10 years and 20 trophies at the Etihad Stadium has already redrawn the landscape. Now comes another twist: Pep Lijnders, the assistant manager brought in only last summer, will also leave at the end of the season.

A Brief, Intense Spell for Lijnders

Lijnders arrived at City in June 2025, fresh from an illustrious stint alongside Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. His move across the divide was one of the most intriguing coaching storylines of last summer, a high-energy, ideas-heavy coach stepping into Guardiola’s inner circle.

It was never going to be a quiet partnership. By all accounts, Lijnders’ single season at the Etihad has been exactly that: brief, but charged with intensity and innovation.

Yet as Guardiola confirmed his decision to bring the curtain down on a decade that reshaped English football, City’s hierarchy turned to the future. They wanted Lijnders to be part of it.

City’s Plan – and Lijnders’ Answer

According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, City offered Lijnders a new long-term contract, with a clear role under incoming manager Enzo Maresca. The club saw him as a key figure in a new-look backroom team, a bridge between eras and ideas.

The Dutchman said no.

At 43, Lijnders has decided he does not want to remain an assistant under a new regime. After years as a high-profile No 2 at Liverpool and then City, he is ready to carve out his own path rather than live in the shadow of another manager, however talented.

City were keen for him to stay. The project under Maresca, who is expected to become the club’s new manager, would have had room for his voice and his methods. But Lijnders’ decision is a statement of ambition as much as departure.

Farewell After Aston Villa

The timing is now set. Lijnders will say his goodbyes to players and staff on Sunday, after City’s final Premier League game of the season at home to Aston Villa.

It will be an emotional afternoon at the Etihad. Guardiola, the architect of a decade of dominance, departs. Lijnders, the energetic lieutenant brought in to help shape the present and possibly the future, follows him out of the door.

City move on with Maresca. Lijnders moves on in search of a new challenge.

The question now is not whether he will get a chance to lead a team of his own, but where that opportunity will come – and how quickly he will turn from highly rated assistant into the main man on a touchline of his own.