Maresca, who previously worked as an assistant coach at City, joined Chelsea in 2024 and led the Premier League side to the Europa Conference League title at the end of his first season, followed by the Club World Cup in July.

A report in The Athletic this week said the 45-year-old Italian is among the top candidates to replace Pep Guardiola at City when the Spanish manager brings an end to his trophy-laden spell at the Etihad Stadium.

Asked about the links, Maresca told reporters: “It doesn’t affect me at all because I know it’s 100 percent speculation.

“In this moment, there is no time for these kinds of things, first of all because I have a contract here until 2029,” he added ahead of a Premier League trip to Newcastle United.

“I said many times, my focus is just about this club and I’m very proud to be here. It’s speculation. One week ago, in Italy, it was the same with Juventus.

“I don’t pay attention because I know it’s not true. Now it’s important to understand the reason why this news was there. But it’s not my job – I don’t care at all.”

Maresca added that he had much left to achieve at Chelsea, who reached the League Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 win over Cardiff City on Tuesday.

“We reached the third semi-final in 18 months the other day,” he said.

“Last year was good in terms of trophies and finishing fourth in the Premier League. The target is to try and improve on what we did last season.”

Chelsea, who are fourth with 28 points from 16 matches, travel to 12th-placed Newcastle on Saturday, where Maresca will soon be able to call again on Liam Delap after the striker’s recovery from a shoulder injury.

“We are good. The ones that we left out for Cardiff are okay,” Maresca said.

“Liam Delap and Dario Essugo are probably available for Aston Villa (on Dec 27) and Romeo (Lavia) is still out, Levi (Colwill) is still out.

“We said since his (Delap’s) injury, we didn’t know exactly for how long but he is progressing well.”