Antoine Semenyo is not pretending the last few months at Manchester City have been simple. The Ghanaian winger, who arrived from Bournemouth in January, says he is still processing the fact that the manager who signed him barely got to coach him for half a season before walking away.
Pep Guardiola left City in May after ten trophy-laden years at the club, closing out his reign with a domestic cup double. Semenyo, according to comments carried by ONE, described the timing as tough on a personal level. "You want to get better, you want to improve every season and he definitely helped me with that... but obviously sad for him to leave," he said of Guardiola, who had promised to work on his all-round game.
The transition mattered more than most for Semenyo. City paid Bournemouth a reported £64-65 million for him in January, one of the biggest fees of the winter window, and he repaid it almost immediately: in May he scored the winning goal in City's FA Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley, an inventive back-heel flick off an Erling Haaland cross that made him the first Ghanaian ever to score in an FA Cup final.
Guardiola's successor is a familiar face at the Etihad. Enzo Maresca, who left Chelsea mid-contract for the job, spent years on Guardiola's City coaching staff before management spells at Leicester and Chelsea. His appointment was confirmed in late June on a three-year deal, with Chelsea receiving a reported compensation package for releasing him early.
Where Semenyo's excitement really shows is in describing the day-to-day instructions. He told reporters Maresca's message for his wide players is deliberately uncomplicated: "Enzo is just stay out wide and when you get the ball, just create opportunities. So it is music to my ears."
It is a marked contrast, by his own account, to Guardiola's more intricate positional demands. Semenyo pointed to what he saw of Maresca's Chelsea sides, where the wingers were pushed high and given license to operate largely on their own terms — exactly the kind of one-on-one, take-the-full-back-on football that plays to his strengths as a direct, powerful runner.
Semenyo's first half-season in Manchester was already a personal breakthrough: 21 goals for club and country, a Premier League Player of the Month award along the way, and now a Wembley moment that will follow him for the rest of his career.
For a squad adjusting to life without the manager who defined an era, Semenyo's comments read as a small but useful signal — a big-money new arrival who says he understands exactly what is being asked of him, and likes it.
