. It was the end of April, late at night, the club’s promotion back into the Premier League confirmed when Leeds lost at QPR and the players could have gone anywhere to celebrate. That they came here – to be with the manager who had guided them – said everything about their collective bond.
Maresca would swap Leicester for Chelsea over the summer. But as he prepares to take his new club to visit his old one on Saturday lunchtime, he was never going to blot out the emotion, to look beyond the relationships he built during the season that made him. They provide the template for what he wants at Chelsea.
“The first face I saw was Hamza [Choudhury],” Maresca says, with a nod to the Leicester midfielder. “They didn’t knock at the door, they were in the garden and then at my window. When I drew the curtains, it was his face there. We had many good moments and this was maybe not the most important one. But it was the one which showed me how good the connection was between the players and staff.
“It was probably the best present I got last season when we were promoted and at around two o’clock in the morning all the team arrived at my house. I was watching the Leeds game and when it finished all the staff arrived. And then later, very late, the players arrived. They could be in different places to celebrate but they decided to come to my home. When I was a player I was lucky to win things but I never thought to go to the manager’s house.”
Maresca was appointed at Leicester in the summer of 2023 after the club’s relegation; they looked beyond the Italian’s lack of first-team managerial experience – 13 Serie B games with Parma in 2021-22. After an excellent start, it became nervy; questions were asked …
Read More
