Enzo Maresca has admitted he held crunch talks with Manchester City after the club was found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules. The manager was speaking to the media for the first time since the independent panel released its findings.
The verdict found that City had arranged "sham contracts" - which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties - with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on "sham" agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018.
City reject findings and appeal
City reject the findings and have launched an appeal, claiming the verdict "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe." The club maintains they are "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions."
Opening up on conversations behind the scenes, Maresca said: "The reason I joined this club is because I completely trust the owner, the CEO, the sporting director. I spoke with the club, for sure, and we all trust."
Maresca's trust in the club
He added: "Probably the right moment to speak is when we're going to win this appeal... There is an ongoing process and in this moment I completely trust the club. There is not another club in the world where I would like to be. I'm very happy to be here and I'm very proud. I've said that from day one."
"The players, for me and the players, we can only control the football side. We're going to win the appeal. It makes no sense to speak about anything else."
Focus turns to Anfield trip
City are back in action on Sunday afternoon when they make the trip to Anfield. "It will be a tough game, a tough test," Maresca said. "We need to be ready. The focus has to be about the game, but also the environment at Anfield is nice, and it probably will be even worse because of the situation. It will be our duty to try and do our best to win the game."
Maresca also insisted that City's titles are not tainted: "Absolutely not. The last time I was here was the Treble season, I know the effort from the players, the club, the manager that was Pep. I know exactly the effort the club put in to achieve that kind of target. I don't have any doubts about that... Absolutely not."
