Sven-Goran Eriksson has been told he will be sacked as Manchester City manager at the end of the season, BBC Sport understands.
City owner Thaksin Shinawatra told Eriksson he was “not the right man for the job” at a meeting on Sunday, a source close to the Swede said.
Eriksson informed the players at training on Monday that he would be dismissed, provoking an angry response.
Shinawatra has been unhappy with City’s results since the turn of the year.
I find that harsh on Sven. City are doing well. To finish at least 9th in the league is a good first season. He also beat United twice so the fans will be up in uproar.
Agreed that it’s harsh. He’s done quite well, he had a bit of money to spend but their squad was poor before he took over so he did need to invest - bit like Keane really, just another level up.
Read some of Paddy Agnew’s book on Italian football recently and he comes out of it really well. Seems like a more than decent guy.
I know he’s had money to spend but I think it’s ridiculous if true. He needed the money to completely overhaul the squad as they had a small squad that lacked quality under Pearce and then lost Distin and Barton in the summer too, who were 2 of only a handful of players along with Dunne, Richards and maybe Ireland that appeared up to the required standard.
He made some astute signings such as Corluka and Petrov and they started really well as can happen when a brand new regime adds a spark or whatever. But a lot of his signings were from outside the EPL and some like Bianchi never adjusted and others who began impresssively have fallen away somewhat such as Elano. That’s not surprising given the physicality of the league and these players will be stronger for it next season. He also lost Bojinov in the 3rd game of the season and he was nearly one quarter of his transfer outlay.
All in all, top half is a very good basis from which to push for top six next season and I reckon they’re only 3 players or so away from doing that - another defender, midfielder and striker - so it seems awfully harsh to get rid of him.
Castillo? Was wondering about him too. He was unreal for Mexico last summer but was shite at Donetsk it seems and haven’t seen him playing at all for City.
He dislocated his shoulder in January and was out for 4-6 weeks. He’s been playing with the reserves of late though and hasn’t made an impact with the first team.
I saw them play against United and they looked a very good team. Beat them off the pitch in Old Trafford and struck me as a very well organised team in very good shape. One of the first things he did was bring Hamann into the team who was inexplicably left out by Pearce (I have a thing for Hamann) and that showed him to me as being a guy who knew what he was at.
His decison to bring uncapped Walcott to the World Cup as one of four strikers and two of which were unfit and then refuse to play him would still go down as one of the most bizarre decisions in football history…
I’ve followed City most of my life and with the exception of the team that included Georgi Kinkladze which finished 5th twice,this has been the best team since the 70’s.
Sacking Sven would only be a backward step,most of the Blues i’ve talked to think the Thai fella is a power mad hoor’s arse.
I’m positive Kinkladze wasn’t in the team that finished 5th Manus. Those 5th place finishes were in 1990 and 1991 under Peter Reid afaik and the team contained the likes of Coton, Brightwell, Reid himself as player-manager, David White and Steve McMahon. Also, a young Michael Hughes of Occupied Six fame. Kinkladze definitely came later under Alan Ball in 1994 or 1995.
think it would be ridiculous to get rid of Erikson. He’s really turned city around this season, and got a lot out of very average players. In fairness to his spell at England too, he got the most out of some very average players too under immense media pressure. I think his selection of Walcot was a complete smokescreen to his other selections and the overall performance in the World cup, and it worked to an extent. The media went completely away from him on a personal level. Altho he was caught out when Owen got injured and he actually needed a striker.
Reminds me actually, maybe on youtube, but ITV were showing either an England or an Aresnal game and Venables did an impression of Wenger and Erikson talking to each other about Walcot, absolutely cringing