Scolari is walking into a City nightmare
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MUPPETS ON A STRING
PHIL SCOLARI made one thing clear. If there was ever a chance of him marching into Manchester City, the job would have to be done on his terms and his terms alone.
Player recruitment, tactics and team selection would all be down to one man, the coach who guided Brazil to the World Cup in 2002 and who has carved a reputation as an astute tactician and shrewd man-manager. Thaksin Shinawatra's emissaries nodded their assent and gave reassurances that, yes, of course Big Phil would be given overall control of the playing side at Eastlands. Then again, Sven Goran Eriksson was told exactly the same when he was considering rehabilitation in the blue half of Manchester just under a year ago.
Ten months later and Eriksson's world has crumbled, destroyed by his inability to compete or comply with a Thai puppet master determined to run City along the lines HE sets down. Senior sources at City believe that if Scolari — or anybody else with a solid standing in the game — decides to accept the position of Eriksson's replacement, they will soon discover the description in the brochure bears little resemblance to reality.
They will walk into a club dogged by suspicion bordering on paranoia, where the most talented players have lost faith in the future and where leading employees live in fear of the owner's next ham-fisted decision. Eriksson's fate was sealed by his decision to fight Shinawatra over Barcelona striker Ronaldinho and his inability to provide the former Thai prime minister with a plaything he could hold up with pride in his homeland.
Shinawatra saw Ronaldinho as the glamorous marquee signing he craved. Eriksson saw a lazy show pony well past his prime and a potential source of huge problems in the dressing room. Eriksson also realised a £35million price-tag and over £120,000 a week for the Brazilian, who seems bored with football, would have been a huge drain on City's coffers which, contrary to public perception, are hardly over-flowing.
While Shinawatra was delivering the coup de grace on Eriksson this week, his lackeys were scouring both the City and the Far and Middle East for investors to help prop up his regime. According to sources at the club, Shinawatra is reluctant to plough in any more of his own money with City facing a cash-flow problem through the summer until revenue from television deals and season tickets comes on stream.
Shinawatra, who paid £80m to buy City and splashed out another £40m on new players, is said to be shocked by the drain on his resources.
Progress
He is facing another bill of £4m in compensation when Eriksson goes and another £2m should the rest of the backroom staff join him. One Eastlands source said: "Shinawatra and his people have been performing a very skilful juggling act with the TV revenue, season tickets sales and other sponsorship money. "But the time is approaching where he will need help from outside sources if he is going to continue to progress the club. "If help is not forthcoming there are even suggestions that he might bale out and put the club up for sale — but at the moment that is a distant prospect."
Shinawatra has spent the last few months trying to recruit a top businessman to help move the club forward on the commercial side. He has also already warned that money for new signings will be tight this summer and his desire to control player recruitment is thought to be at the root of his fractured relationship with Eriksson.
Our source said: "Sven will be the first of many to go. The owner has made his own mind up about what needs to be done and plans to be ruthless about it. "He understands many people will not be happy, but the way he looks at it, it's his money, and he calls the shots."
Eriksson's position was put under tremendous pressure by his unwillingness to kowtow to Shinawatra's wishes but his fate was eventually sealed following last Saturday's shocking defeat at home to relegation-threatened Fulham.
Bored
City were cruising at 2-0 only to concede three goals in the final 20 minutes. Sources close to the Shinawatra camp say he felt humiliated about the prospect of a lap of honour at the final whistle, which saw most of the 44,000 crowd turn their backs and leave within a few minutes.
The source added: "The owner was in the tunnel for 20 minutes after the game before they eventually went back on to the pitch. "It was not the way he had planned it. "He has been trying to fill the ground to capacity, and to him, and the way the team performed, every empty seat at the end was a confirmation to him that he was correct in his decision to act — he also saw each empty seat as potential lost revenue next season."
We have also learned Shinawatra has told family members and close allies that he had become bored watching the team in recent months. He was also left seething after flying in to watch them play at Bolton Wanderers last month. City ground-out a 0-0 draw at the Reebok Stadium and he was left far from impressed with his manager's comments afterwards.
The source added: "Sven congratulated the team on a hard-fought point — the owner didn't see it like that — he thought they were poor and lacked motivation to get a result against an average team."
So while Scolari and his people receive assurances of independence, he would do well to consider the last 10 months. If Big Phil thought the England job was too much of a poisoned chalice to contemplate, what price longevity at City?
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Nope. Eriksson is good but he is mentally weak so he let himself being controlled by thaksin. Scolari wont allow thaksin to control him i am sure.
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thaksin is scolari n eriksson not playing football but politics. this bugger is more interested to keep thai ppl interest in him than man city !
sorry man city, it seem exodus is more likely to happen at ma city than at arsenal!!