Manchester City may yet retain Sven Goran Eriksson
The similarities between England and Manchester City are almost too striking for words. A couple of former England stars start their managerial terms brightly before fading, Sven Goran Eriksson is brought in to steady the ship and he achieves what he promised without delivering a major trophy, before a flirtation with Luiz 'big Phil' Scolari is attempted. All that is now needed is for Scolari to run away screaming something about press intrusions and wanting to see Portugal through the the upcoming championship, to leave the City board to cast around for an alternative before deciding on Steve McClaren ahead of Sam Allardyce.
None of which is of any comfort to the long-suffering City support.
But of more interest is the calibre of manager that Thaksin 'Swales' Shinawatra is targeting for City. The three most likely managers of City for 2008/9 are now Eriksson (who won't be released unless a suitable replacement is found), Scolari and Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho is not attracting the attention of the elite teams in Europe - Milan, Inter, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. - and he may well be tempted to return to England. The 'big four' are probably going to stick with their present manager this summer - leaving the second tier of teams, which includes City. And at City Mourinho would have as much money as anywhere to start creating a winning team.
But if neither Scolari nor Mourinho can be persuaded then there is little reason to believe that anyone of the calibre of Sven Goran Eriksson can be brought to Manchester. At which point the owner would be expensively cutting his nose off to spite his face if he then pushed through the sacking of Eriksson - so it is likely that he would be retained.
On the bright side; if a year ago if you had told any City fan that his team would be signing £50m worth of players immediately, with another £50m likely for 2008/9 and that the team would be managed by Eriksson, Scolari or Mourinho they would have assumed you were mad.
Looking at this objectively, these are exciting times ar Eastlands.
