Defiant Enzo Maresca makes Man City vow after Premier League guilty verdict

Enzo Maresca has claimed there is no club in the world he would rather be at than Manchester City and said he would still have joined them even if they had already been found guilty of 114 charges of breaching the Premier League 's financial rules. The City manager mounted a defence of his club by insisting he trusts them and thatthey will win their appeal against the verdictand the Italian hinted he could even remain at City if they are relegated to League One as a punishment.

Enzo Maresca has spoken for the first time since the Premier League's guilty verdict(PA) Maresca, who was Pep Guardiola 's assistant in the Treble-winning campaign of 2022-23, said their achievements in recent years are not tainted by the judgment that they benefited from more than £900m of disguised funding between 2009 and 2018. Maresca signed a three-year contract at the Etihad Stadium in the summer and paid compensation himself to Chelsea after discussing the possibility of replacing Guardiola with City while still employed at Stamford Bridge.

And he said: "I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined the club. There is not another club in the world where I would like to be.

So I'm very happy to be here. I said many times since day one.

Maresca was adamant he would have taken the job even if the independent commission, whosaid City had sham" contracts for sponsorship deals,had already ruled against them. "One hundred percent, yes," he said.

"I know the organisation from years ago. I know how serious they are.

I know they do the right things. I would like to speak about this when we're going to win the appeal.

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca faced a packed press conference(PA Wire) Maresca did not raise the subject of the Premier League charges in his discussions with City about taking the job. No, we didn't speak about that because I don't think that was a problem for the club in that time," he said.

"Also, because they are thinking in an honest way. I think they are convinced that in the end we want to win the appeal."