- Maresca was manager as Leicester won the Championship title last season
- He then moved onto Chelsea, who the Foxes host in league action this weekend
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Enzo Maresca has revealed how Leicester City‘s players gatecrashed his house in search of a party at 2am after their promotion to the Premier League was confirmed.
Chelsea‘s head coach says he has ‘no idea’ how Foxes fans will welcome him back to the King Power Stadium on Saturday, but insists his connection with the squad was special.
Leicester secured their return to the elite level of English football via Leeds losing 4-0 at QPR on April 26. Maresca was at home celebrating when a tap on the window in the early hours of the morning led him to discover his stars waiting outside in his garden.
‘I was at home watching the (QPR versus Leeds) game, then when it finished, all the staff arrived,’ Maresca said. ‘We were having a normal celebration, with family, kids, the staff, Willy (Caballero), Danny (Walker), Robby (Vitiello).
‘Then later – very late – the players arrived. The first face I saw was Hamza (Choudhury) but they didn’t even knock at the door – they were in the garden and then at my window. When I drew the curtains, it was his face there.
‘It was probably the best present I got last season. It showed how the team was close, and the connection with the players, that they could go for parties at different places yet they all arrived at my home. I will always be thankful to them. When I was a player I was lucky to win things but I never thought to go to the manager’s house.’
Enzo Maresca has detailed how Leicester players gatecrashed his house at 2am after they won the Championship
Maresca led the Foxes to the Championship title – and promotion back to the Premier League
Now he is in charge of Chelsea and will take his new side back to his former club on Saturday
Asked how he thinks Leicester’s fans will welcome him back to the King Power, Maresca said: ‘I have no idea. But I know how I am going to be with them. I will be thankful to the club, the players and the fans. Because it was a fantastic season. I cannot control how they are going to receive me. But I can control how I receive them.’
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was among those who turned up unannounced at Chez Maresca. The 26-year-old midfielder followed his manager from Leicester to Chelsea for £30million, though has not yet started a Premier League match.
‘Kiernan was, at Leicester, the most important player,’ Maresca said. ‘He moved to Chelsea to be one other player. You have to accept that.
‘Probably at the beginning, you struggle to accept that. Now it’s getting better. Me as a manager, I am very happy with Kiernan, no doubt. But for sure for him, he has to continue to work, wait for the chance and take it, in the way he is doing in the Conference League. He is doing OK.’
