Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has opened up on his relationship with Manuel Pellegrini ahead of the Conference League final with Real Betis.
The pair will square off in the continental showpiece on May 28 as they both look to earn what would be a statement trophy with their respective sides.
Maresca and Pellegrini will be meeting in opposite sides of the dugout for the first time, but the pair are good friends away from the pitch.
As well as playing under Pellegrini during their time at Malaga, Maresca was brought to West Ham United when veteran manager Pellegrini moved to the London Stadium in 2018.
Once Pellegrini moved on from the East Londoners, Maresca forged his own career at the likes of Parma, Manchester City and Leicester City before arriving at Stamford Bridge last summer.
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‘I see him by the pool’
Speaking at the club’s media day ahead of the game in Poland, Maresca gave further details of the level of relationship that he has with Pellegrini, revealing that they often spend time together in the summer.
The Italian said, as quoted by football.london: “Both we want to win, but he is going to try his best to prepare the game and win the game. I will do exactly the same. And then the good thing is that nothing changed after the game in terms of relation.
“I said before, we are very close with Manuel. We also live, when we don’t work, we live in the same place. We live very close in Spain. So it’s not just about relation in football, it’s relation in life. And Manuel’s age is my dad’s age.
“So when I used to sit next to people older than me, I always tried to learn because they can teach us at any moment because they have more experience than us. So Manuel is not just a colleague. For me, he’s a reference and he’s a top person. So you spend summers together, he comes round the pool, bars, all that sort of stuff.”
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“I try to learn things”
As well as acknowledging that he spoke with Pellegrini prior to accepting the Chelsea job, Maresca admitted that the Chilean has had a significant impact on how he has developed as a manager.
He added: “I try to learn things from all the managers. For sure if today I’m where I am it’s also because of Manuel, the things that I learned with him in terms of how to manage players, how to manage changing rooms, how to manage difficult situations, noise around the club.
“He’s a reference, he’s very close in the way he manages things with Carlo Ancelotti, so they are quite close in that sense. So I try to learn many things and then I had him as a player for two years and then almost two years I worked with him as a coach. So for me it was enough time to try to learn as much as possible from him.”
The pair must first focus on domestic fixtures, with Betis playing host to Valencia on Friday night before Chelsea travel to Nottingham Forest on Sunday, the difference in schedule something which has frustrated Maresca.
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