Why Maresca was desperate to sign Enzo Fernandez as Man City squad reaction to deal speaks volumes

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca spoke about club record signing Enzo Fernandez, who he knows well from their Chelsea days

Enzo Maresca said Manchester City players were itching to know that Enzo Fernandez was signing as he welcomes a ‘winner’ to the Manchester City dressing room. The Blues killed any suggestion they would sign the Chelsea star at the beginning of the transfer window but sealed a £125million deal on its final day to complete a record summer of ins and outs.

Fernandez will form part of a new-look midfielder at the Etihad where more than £300m has been spent on three players in Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi. City rejected the opportunity to pay slightly lower for Fernandez earlier in the window, but did manage to bring down Chelsea’s £135m asking price in the final hours as they finally delivered the club-record signing.

Knowing that Rodri and Bernardo Silva would be leaving this summer, Maresca had his eyes on Fernandez for a long time – especially given the player had made it clear he was open to leaving Chelsea. The pair enjoyed success together at Stamford Bridge and the manager did not hesitate when asked why they had signed him.

“I know Enzo quite well. I know what he can bring to the team. He’s a winner, has a winner’s mentality. He knows how to win – World Cup, Club World Cup. The main thing is that, again, he’s a winner,” he said.

“He’s a winner and when you belong to a squad and another winner arrives they are always happy. I can promise you that in the last four or five days, four or five players in the squad were asking if he was coming or not because they want him to be with us. It’s very important that he is with us and we are 100 per cent happy with that.”

Fernandez could make his debut as soon as Saturday’s game with Coventry at the Etihad, but will not be part of the captaincy group for the season after Maresca added Marc Guehi and Gianluigi Donnarumma to the leadership group instead. Matheus Nunes is also expected to return to the squad after missing the trip to Palace but Jeremy Doku remains sidelined.