Kovacic's Future Looks Clear, Even If Maresca Won't Say It
It is not often Enzo Maresca speaks in riddles. When he does, the message tends to be fairly easy to decode. His latest comments on Mateo Kovacic fall into that category.
The City head coach has hinted that the Croatian midfielder will be on his way before the transfer window shuts. He stopped short of confirming anything outright, but the direction of travel is obvious enough.
Kovacic arrived from Chelsea for £30m. The fee, tidy at the time, now reads as something of a bargain in a market where midfielders routinely command double that. Yet the logic of cashing in while there is interest is not hard to follow.
The squad is not short of options in the middle of the park. Younger legs have been arriving and the pecking order has shifted. Kovacic's experience still has its uses, particularly in the early weeks of a season, but the writing feels like it is on the wall.
Asked directly about the futures of the £130m pair, Maresca offered no firm declaration of an exit, no definitive commitment to keeping the 32-year-old. Just a nod in the general direction of the door.
What happens next depends on offers. If a suitable one arrives, the decision may make itself. For now, Kovacic's future sits somewhere between probable and inevitable, and Maresca's hint has done little to settle the uncertainty.