Enzo Maresca has admitted Manchester City still have significant work to do in the transfer market, with the club yet to add to their squad beyond Elliot Anderson.
City broke their transfer record last month with a £116million deal for Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson, the first signing of Maresca's tenure. The 23-year-old England international arrived after Pep Guardiola ended his decade-long spell at the Etihad earlier in the summer.
However, with less than a month of the window remaining, Anderson remains the only first-team addition, and supporters are growing restless following two seasons without a Premier League title.
Departures and Neto links
Meanwhile, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Nathan Ake, and Manuel Akanji have all left the club, following Guardiola out of the exit door and taking valuable experience with them.
Reports this week have linked City with Chelsea winger Pedro Neto, who knows Maresca from their time together at Stamford Bridge. It is unclear whether City will meet Chelsea's £70million asking price for the Portugal international, who is also attracting interest from AC Milan.
'Fortunately, this is a squad that doesn't need to do many things,' Maresca told reporters ahead of a pre-season match against K-League All Stars in Seoul. 'At the same time, as we already know, the club lost important players in terms of experience like Bernardo [Silva], John [Stones], Nathan [Ake], different players. So for sure, there are things that we need to do.'
Daily communication
Asked if City were close to making further signings, Maresca replied: 'No, not at the moment. The reason why I said there are things to do is because the transfer window is open and when it's open anything can happen. Yeah, it's just August and then from September when it's closed it's completely different.'
The Italian stressed he is in daily contact with City's director of football Hugo Viana and CEO Ferran Soriano to discuss potential incomings and outgoings. 'Hugo is here and also Ferran is here,' he added. 'We just try to speak day by day to see if we need to do something. As I've said, for sure there are things that we need to do, but we are in communication every day.'
Pre-season defeat
Maresca's first match in charge ended in defeat, with Inter Milan winning on penalties in a scrappy pre-season encounter in Hong Kong. The former Chelsea and Leicester manager has been encouraged by what he has seen but acknowledges there is room for improvement.
'It's important since day one to try to install new ideas and new things,' he explained. 'It's important that day after day, but especially game after game, you can see during the game the things that you work on day by day. For instance, the first game against Inter Milan, for sure there are many things that we can do better. But the main thing is that I start to see things we start to work on since day one.'
