Man City boss Maresca ready for 'aggressive' Bournemouth, addresses transfer rumours

City begin their Premier League season against the Cherries on Sunday afternoon as they begin life without legendary manager Pep Guardiola and World Cup winner Rodri.

Maresca's first match in charge of City at the Etihad Stadium comes after a heavy defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield, which hasn’t instilled much confidence in supporters hoping to see their side bounce back after missing out on the title last season.

City ready for 'aggressive' Cherries

As City aim to grab three points and start the season off perfectly, Maresca was first asked how he is preparing for Bournemouth and gave out some important team news. 

"I watched the game, I watched the pre-season game. I also watched some games from last season, when he was at another club. You can see clearly the identity," Marescsa said.

"A very aggressive team. They already were aggressive with Andoni (Iraola), and they still are. It's quite clear what they do on the ball and off the ball."

On Jeremy Doku, he added: "In the last game at half-time he was complaining about a bit of pain in the calf. We didn't want him to play more than 45 minutes so the change was planned. At the moment it is looking about two to three weeks, no more than that."

Savinho wanted to leave 'since day one'

City have been circled by transfer rumours on Savinho and Omar Marmoush, who are close to joining Tottenham this week as Maresca clears out his attack after letting go of the likes of Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders in midfield.

"It's quite clear that when players want to leave, for any reason, then it's complicated to convince them to stay or change their thoughts," the manager explained.

"It happened with Rodri; the same thing is happening with Savinho, since day one he asked me that he wants to leave. So now we are waiting.

"It's complicated when the player is thinking they need a new challenge or want to change because they probably want to go back to Spain, or play more minutes - for different reasons. It's complicated to convince them to stay." 

Maresca also said that "Omar (Marmoush) has not asked to leave since day one" and when asked if he has this week he said "not yet."

On Enzo Fernandez rumours

Speaking further on transfer rumours, Maresca addressed the links to Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez, who is being tipped as a straight replacement for Rodri in a move that could happen before the transfer window shuts.

"Enzo (Fernandez) is a Chelsea player, and I'm not going to talk about players that are not with us. First of all, because I think it's a lack of respect, and second because I don't like when different managers talk about our players."