Maresca on Reijnders' Future: Exit Likely Amid Player Conviction

Enzo Maresca did not quite close the door, but he hardly left it on the latch either.

Speaking about Tijani Reijnders’ future, the Manchester City manager drew a clear parallel with recent departures such as Omar Marmoush and James Trafford, acknowledging that a lack of game time across last season has shaped the Dutch midfielder’s stance now.

“Probably, yes,” Maresca said when asked if Reijnders’ situation mirrored those cases. “They all work every day, they do sessions every day and at the end of the week they all want to play a game. When they don't play, they struggle to understand or see the reason why. I can understand that after one season, some of them would like to play a little bit more. It's a normal situation.”

That “normal situation” is pushing Reijnders towards the exit. And Maresca, bluntly, knows how difficult it is to drag a player back once his mind is made up.

“It's a bit difficult to convince players when they are already convinced, it's not always easy,” he admitted. “It's Tijani's situation. I think when the club, players, manager, they all think in the same way, that is probably the best decision for a player to go? They go.”

For now, nothing is officially signed off. The manager stressed that the deal is not yet complete, even if the direction of travel feels obvious.

“Tij is not officially done, but we'll see in the next hour,” Maresca said. “I already spoke with him a few times in pre-season, then we will see if he is going to leave or if he is going to stay.”

That uncertainty clearly frustrates Maresca on a footballing level as much as anything else. He liked what he saw from Reijnders over the summer and had a role mapped out for him.

“In the way he was playing in the pre-season games, I was quite happy with his performance overall,” he explained. “I know Tij from Italy, from Milan when he was there so I know him quite well. I know there he was playing in a different position, he likes to play a little more deep rather than high up the pitch, but again in the pre-season he was good, then we'll see what happens and we'll decide.”

Maresca’s words carry a clear subtext: City have a manager who believes Reijnders could fit, a player who prefers to operate deeper, and a squad slot that could yet be his. But if all three parties truly “think in the same way,” as Maresca put it, the next decisive touch may not come on the pitch – it may be the signature that sends Reijnders away from Manchester before he ever really gets started.