Sven-Goran Eriksson's extravagant pre-season spending is set to go over the £35m mark in the next 48 hours as the Manchester City manager invests a staggering £22m on four more foreign signings. Eriksson continues to eschew Britishbased players as he looks to build City in to a significant Premiership force and is today expected to complete the £5,5m signing of Fiorentina striker Valeri Bojinov and invest another £2m in Real Sociedad left-back Javi Garrido. City sources also confirmed last night that the club — now backed by the millions of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — hope to pay in the region of £7m for Dinamo Zagreb defender Vedran Corluka and £7m for Shakthar Donetsk's Brazilian defender Elano before the end of the week. Already in his month-long reign at the City of Manchester Stadium, Eriksson has paid £8.8m for Reggina striker Rolando Bianchi and the Italian has been joined by Gelson Fernandes, a £2.2m signing from FC Sion, £4.7m Atletico Madrid striker Martin Petrov and Brazilian midfielder Geovanni, a free agent who once cost Barcelona £11m.
The combination of millionaire Thai owner Thaksin and a high-profile coach has turned City into an agent's dream — a club with lots of cash but little time to spend it and even less choice as Eriksson enters the transfer market at the back end of the summer. Even the conservative estimates put his transfer kitty at way in excess of the £50million being mentioned, so the City boss has two options; pay over the odds for a player or scour the globe for less obvious — some would say more obscure — signings.
So far Eriksson seems to have chosen the latter, baulking only at a £10m asking price for Olympiakos' Mexico striker Nery Castillo. There has, as yet, been no sign of a British signing, despite manager Eriksson having extensive knowledge of the Premiership from his five-anda- half years in charge of England.
For all the excitement surrounding Eriksson's arrival, City fans could be forgiven for wondering how he is possibly going to mould his multinational squad into a team by the time the Premiership season starts again next week. He has eight days and one more friendly — against Valencia on Saturday — before City open the campaign against West Ham. Even for the unflappable Swede, who found club success at Gothenburg, Benfica and Lazio, it is a tall order.
Eriksson was also being linked with Australia midfielder Mark Bresciano from Serie A club Palermo yesterday. He is, after all, just about the only nationality not in the City squad.
