‘I may be bald but I am NOT Pep Guardiola!’ Enzo Maresca insists his Chelsea side will not be Man City 2.0

It’s rare to hear a Premier League head coach tell a journalist he’s jealous of him, but halfway through this conversation with Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca in Atlanta, we see the 44-year-old Italian staring at the head of hair in front of him.

“My wife, she would love that,” he says before drawing our attention to his bald head and stylish beard. “Unfortunately, that’s who I am, so everyone thinks…”

That you act like you’re Pep Guardiola? ‘Is it something annoying? No. Because at the end of the day, I have my wife, I have my children, I have my family. We’re all different.’

Maresca says he is his own man, despite the nickname ‘Diet Pep’. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t inspired by the Manchester City manager. The night before we meet in the opulent cigar bar of the St Regis Hotel, he was on the phone to Guardiola, who he previously assisted at City.

“When I arrived at Chelsea, he was very happy because he is sure that with the timing we can build something important,” says Maresca. “If I am where I am today, it is thanks to him.

Maresca admits he and Guardiola are both bald but insists he is not trying to copy the City manager

‘I fell in love with that idea. I was 28. I was playing against Barcelona. I realised that it wasn’t the same playing against another team. I was still playing (for Sevilla) and I was already analysing games and watching training sessions on YouTube, because I fell in love straight away. It’s like when you see your wife and/or your children. I fell in love. But unfortunately we’re still the same.’

Once again, he shows us his baldness. ‘But that’s normal,’ he continues. ‘For example, Willy Caballero is my assistant. If he comes to another club in a year or two, they will certainly ask him: “Do you have the same idea?” Because he worked with me. That’s normal.

‘When I came to Leicester and met the chairman and the technical director, they said, “We want to play the same way as City.” I told them, “We don’t have the same players and I’m not the same manager.” The same thing happened when I met Chelsea. I said, “The idea is that idea, but probably we need time because the players also need to understand how we want to play and that’s different.”

“This is something I struggle with a little bit. ‘Because he’s bald and has a beard, he wants to play the same.’ No, I don’t. I’ve fallen in love with that idea, but that doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same.”

Maresca was appointed by Chelsea in June, signing a five-year deal with the option of a further year. Here he reveals that another Premier League club tried to sign him before everything was finalised. Sworn to secrecy, we leave you to guess who from Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Manchester United previously interviewed potential candidates.

Maresca didn’t even bring a laptop to his first interview with Chelsea. He wanted to hear what they had to say first. ‘They wanted it to be more aggressive,’ he says of the style of play they craved, both on and off the ball, with owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart leading the recruitment process. ‘I was exactly what they were looking for.’

Maresca has been urged by club officials to make Chelsea’s playing style ‘more aggressive’

Maresca believes he is ‘exactly’ what technical directors Paul Winstanley (left) and Laurence Stewart (right) were looking for to take the club forward

Unlike Antonio Conte, who sang Neapolitan favourite Malafemmena, Maresca jokes that he had a clause in his Chelsea contract so he wouldn’t have to sing an initiation song. “If someone said singing would get us the title, I’d sing every night,” he adds.

Maresca’s Leicester played Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals in March, losing 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. Maresca prepared for that match by watching Chelsea’s last six games. “I spoke to my staff and said, ‘You can build something important with the players Chelsea have,'” he says, before watching many more after his appointment.

“I’ve almost never seen man-to-man high pressing. Since we started, we decided to go man-to-man because it’s our way; aggressive. It’s not just on the ball. It’s a big change.

‘For me, the big difference between us and the teams that dominate – City and Arsenal – is that one team has had the same manager for eight years and the other has had the same manager for five years. We’ve had two or three weeks. I’m 100 per cent sure we’re on the right track.’

Maresca signed for West Brom from Cagliari in 1998 at the age of 18. Graham Potter wasn’t just his team-mate. He was his driver. ‘I lived very close to Graham’s house but I didn’t have a driving licence so he would drive me to training every morning,’ he laughs. ‘When I saw him again when he was at Brighton or Chelsea I joked: “You were my driver!”‘

‘I spoke to him a few times last year when I was at Leicester, but since I’ve been at Chelsea I haven’t spoken to him. I spoke to Claudio Ranieri, but that was only because I spoke to him when I came to Leicester. He only told me good things. Claudio is a gentleman. He finds it hard to talk badly about anyone. I have no doubt that we can make an impact. It’s just a matter of time.’

Maresca believes he can quickly make a positive impact at Chelsea despite the club’s struggles in recent seasons

Potter also signed a five-year contract when he was appointed at Chelsea and, in private, the club wants to give him time to expound on his philosophy. Inspired by Manuel Pellegrini and Carlo Ancelotti, Maresca wants his players to see him as a ‘family member’, patting the leather sofa next to him. In other words: approachable.

Even though we’re in the cigar room, we’ve suppressed the urge to smoke one. At $65 for a Davidoff Aniversario Series No 3 Tubos, the costing team might have sent me an email.

But Maresca does like a cigar. “I like Partagas because it’s my father’s,” he says, adding that he has a specific one in mind for when he wins his first trophy with his new club. After almost an hour in his company, you certainly begin to understand why Chelsea decided he was their chosen one.