In his press conference this week, Enzo Maresca spoke of two homes: the one which, he hopes, he is making at Chelsea, but first, the one his Leicester players turned up at unannounced - at 2am - to celebrate their promotion.
Ahead of his first return to the King Power Stadium, Maresca recalled the giddy Friday night (and Saturday morning) last April when, after Leeds suffered a surprise defeat at QPR, the Foxes’s top-flight return was confirmed.
“The first face I saw was Hamza [Choudhury],” said Maresca, explaining how the unexpected guests had interrupted celebrations until then confined to his family and his staff. “They didn’t even knock at the door - they were in the garden and then at my window. But when I drew the curtains, it was his face there.
“It showed how close the team was, the connection with the players. They could go for parties to a different place, yet they all arrived at my home.”
Maresca called the moment the “best present I got last season” and admitted that the bond with both his players and the club’s hierarchy made it hard to walk away when Chelsea came calling in the summer.
“Until the end the owner [Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha] did everything they could to convince me to stay,” he said. “He completely understood but the connection was fantastic.”
There was frustration at Leicester at the speed with which Maresca moved on, after just one season in charge. The club’s official parting statement said they were “disappointed that Enzo has decided at this stage that he no longer wants to be part of our vision” and the manager himself admitted on Thursday that he is unsure what kind of reception he will get from Foxes fans.
Moving on, though, has tended to be Maresca’s way. He played for 11 clubs during his professional career, never staying longer than four seasons at any of them, and has coached at four different clubs in the last four years.
Chelsea, with their infamous managerial churn, may seem a strange place to talk about settling down, but having exceeded expectations so far in taking the Blues to third in the Premier League, the 44-year-old is hopeful.
“For sure the feeling is the right one and for sure I feel ready to stay for more years in one club,” he said. “No doubt about this. But the problem is that it doesn’t depend on me. It depends on the club that if you are together and agree to stay for many years. It feels like home.”
After a tough string of fixtures against Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle and Arsenal before the international break, Saturday’s meeting marks the start of a kinder run for the Blues, who play only one of the current top eight, Fulham, in their next 11 league fixtures.
Chelsea’s chance to consolidate their top-four position through the festive period is clear
Chelsea’s chance to consolidate their top-four position through the festive period is clear, particularly given the depth at Maresca’s disposal.
The Italian, though, is wary of underestimating the opponents he helped promote and not least because of the regard in which he holds their frontman.
“[Jamie] Vardy is fantastic and people don’t realise how good he is,” Maresca said. “I know that England has been quite lucky with strikers, like [Harry] Kane, [Wayne] Rooney and many others. But if you ask me he has been the best one.
“He can do many things, like run in behind and finish, but the best thing for me is his open mind.
“Last year, he changed the way he was playing by dropping in, linking the play and he still wants to learn. But of course he still has the one thing that is most difficult to find, which is to score goals.
“He can be out for one week, without training, and play on the Saturday or Sunday and he’s the one who scores.”
