ENZO MARESCA gave Ruud van Nistelrooy the Leicester lowdown and convinced his mate it was the right job.
And Chelsea’s boss believes it is still a good gig even though his pal has won only two Premier League matches since taking over in December.
GettyChelsea boss Enzo Maresca has lifted the lid on his time at Leicester[/caption]
RexThe ace convinced pal Ruud van Nistelrooy to take charge at the King Power Stadium[/caption]
Maresca guided The Foxes to last season’s Championship title but they are now in freefall straight back out of the top flight.
The Italian bids to further hammer his old club and Van Nistelrooy on Sunday at Stamford Bridge.
Maresca said: “Ruud is a friend of mine. We played together and then after we have been in contact.
“When Leicester called, he thought to call me and we had a chat. I said to him that Leicester is a fantastic club run by fantastic people.
“I have said many times, I’m 30 years in football and it was probably the best people in football that I’d met. So I told him many good, positive things about Leicester.”
Maresca and Van Nistelrooy briefly shared a dressing room while playing for Spanish side Malaga but will be in opposing dugouts on Sunday afternoon.
City are desperate for points having taken only three points this calendar year.
Maresca remains close to Van Nistelrooy’s players, too.
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They even posted a picture of a banner declaring ‘Enzo we miss you’ during their Christmas party.
The Italian said: “The only thing I can say is that I try to create a relationship with players where at the end, I feel very close to them and they probably feel very close to me.
“This is probably the only reason. I still speak with many of Leicester’s players because we had a fantastic season last year and I’m very close to some of them.
“I’ve been in football for more than 30 years. You struggle to find people so, so, so nice, that they care about the family, about the kids, about everything. They are fantastic.
“But the most important thing, let me say, is that we need our fans on Sunday – 95 minutes, 100 minutes, we need to win the game. That is the most important thing.
“At this moment, I’m focused on us. Now I’m here, I’m just thinking about us, how we can improve and then it’s more for Ruud, for the sporting director, for the owner to find a solution.”
Leicester can expect no favours nor an easy approach with squad rotation.
Key midfielder Moises Caicedo is one booking away from a two-game ban and Chelsea have arguably tougher matches looming against London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham.
But Maresca will not consider resting his tough tackling £115million star.
He said: “At this moment for us, it’s about winning games. We need to win games, so we cannot plan on giving Moi a rest thinking that he can play against Arsenal.
“We need to win against Leicester and then we need to focus on how we can beat Arsenal. It’s just game by game and we need our best players on the pitch.
“The position of Moises, if you see his background, last year he had 11-12 yellow cards, the year before the same, because he’s a midfielder. You are in the traffic. Sometimes you have to make some fouls. It’s normal.
“Hopefully, he can avoid that until the end, knowing that probably it’s difficult, but the good thing is that we also have Romeo Lavia now, he’s started with us already.
“He can be back. We need to be ready. Reece James can be a midfielder too so we’ll see.”
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