03 Jun 2026 14:40:08
My understanding, when Maresca left in mid season, was his contract had been terminated by mutual consent.
It would now appear that he was on some sort of “garden leave” and we are now negotiating with City for his contractual release and compensation.
03 Jun 2026 16:34:48
Garden leave. Now we know why Greenaway is always talking about grass not always being greener. Sorry, Greenaway, only joking.
04 Jun 2026 00:29:38
Almost all managers are put on gardening leave when given the heave ho. It's due to compensation for both the manager and the club. Basically, if a manager is fired, they're generally paid up the remainder of their contract unless there's clauses in their contract. Compensation agreements are flexible; ie if Manager A had 3 years left on their contract, the payout would be X. If they get a new job within a year, it's 1/2X; if within 6 months, it's 1/4X, etc.
They're put on gardening leave up til a set amount of time to see what compensation is owed.
In this case, I imagine we'll ask City for whatever we owe Maresca + a small fee for tapping him up. Or perhaps Maresca will waive whatever compensation was agreed with Chelsea and we'll get a small fee, nothing like what we'd get if he was still officially the Head Coach.
04 Jun 2026 15:07:20
My guess is City will pay up if they think they might get charged with tapping up!!
04 Jun 2026 17:06:46
It seems that Maresca was approached (tapped up) by Man City, and immediately reported this to the club, and told them he would not engage with them but would like a new contract to match what Man City were offering. Seems very fair, decent and reasonable on his part. It transpires that the club (Chelsea) told him no, and to go on garden leave, hence the change of manager.
I'm not sure what compensation will be due either way, but it does show Man City do tend to get away with whatever suits them. Will be interesting how this pans out, but my guess is their money will just cover it all up.