Sven-Goran Eriksson is close to announcing his second coming in English football after informing Manchester City last night that he wants to be part of the Thaksin Shinawatra revolution.
He has verbally agreed a three-year deal worth about £2 million a year, with significant bonuses, and there will be an official announcement as soon as Thaksin has built the 75 per cent stake necessary to take the club off the stock exchange.
Thaksin currently owns about 67 per cent and, with the club's shareholders having been recommended to accept his £81.6 million takeover bid, the deal should be completed within days. As soon as that is confirmed Eriksson will be ushered in, and the club hope to arrange a friendly against Real Madrid as his first match.
The former England manager has not signed a pre-contract agreement and therefore remains open to other offers but City hope he will be true to his word and negotiations have begun with the Swedish football association about freeing Roland Andersson to become his number two.
Eriksson has been working on a list of possible transfers with Andersson, currently Sweden's assistant manager, and there will be moves for, among others, Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal and Yossi Benayoun of West Ham United.
Eriksson was 119 to 1 with the bookmakers at one point, with little or no support within the club's boardroom, but Thaksin made a personal request for the 59-year-old to be approached and the former Thai prime minister's advisers, predominantly the former Football League chairman Keith Harris, have struck a deal worth about three times the amount City's previous manager, Stuart Pearce, was earning.
However, City issued a statement last night reiterating that they were still talking to other "managerial candidates", aware there is the possibility Eriksson may change his mind. Mark Hughes, the Blackburn Rovers and former Wales manager, is the fall-back option and his current employers at Ewood Park will be dismayed to learn that their manager is reputedly keen on the job.
Meanwhile, only 39 days after staging what amounted to a coup d'etat at Newcastle United, shocking the chairman Freddy Shepherd by buying John Hall's 41 per cent stake, Mike Ashley yesterday moved closer to complete control and began appointing his own generals inside St James' Park.
Christopher Mort, a 38-year-old London lawyer, becomes deputy chairman of Newcastle but that title should not be taken to imply that he has anyone above him at the club aside from Ashley. Mort is now the key figure and decision-maker at Newcastle and he is the man to whom Sam Allardyce will answer on a daily basis.
An experienced corporate lawyer who advised Ashley on the recent £930 million flotation of his Sports Direct company, Mort will be in charge of the strategic review of all aspects of the club.
Yesterday Ashley also moved closer to the 90 per cent shareholding that would mean a compulsory purchase of the last 10 per cent. He will then de-list Newcastle from the Stock Exchange.
Mort's is an executive appointment whereas Steve Hayward becomes a non-executive director. It may be considered that Hayward is on licence from Ashley's core Sports Direct business. He has a sports marketing background and Ashley is obviously keen to drive on the commercial aspect of the Newcastle United business.
The presence of both men at St James' impacts upon Shepherd. The chairman has chosen to remain in his post but his authority, if not his bank balance, has been reduced greatly and few expect that he will stay much beyond the closure of the transfer window at the end of August. That in turn should have some bearing on Shepherd's son Kenneth, whose exact role at the club was queried in the Stevens report.
As predicted in the past 72 hours, Shepherd's brother Bruce, along with Hall's son Douglas, resigned from the board yesterday, as did Douglas Hall's sister, Allison Antonopoulos, and Tim Revill.
Allardyce can expect to feel the knock-on effect soon. Ashley's primary motivation in buying Newcastle remains unknown but even if it is fundamentally financial the manager can anticipate an injection of funds and a flurry of headline figures. But Monday's claim that Newcastle will receive £10 million in compensation for the injury to Michael Owen is a gross exaggeration.
In playing terms, Allardyce has so far been able to buy Joey Barton from Manchester City for £5.8 million and David Rozehnal from Paris Saint-Germain for £3 million and Mark Viduka has arrived on a free transfer from Middlesbrough.
Meanwhile, Parma have made a bid, thought to be around £6 million, for Manchester United's Giuseppe Rossi, who spent five months on loan at the Serie A club last season. Owen Hargreaves flies into Manchester today to sign his four-year contract at Old Trafford but the possible departure of Alan Smith and Rossi would mean a shortage of front players.
Barcelona's Eidur Gudjohnsen is one of the strikers who has been offered to United this week.
While Smith has expressed reluctance about joining Middlesbrough, the first club to reach United's £6 million valuation, Rossi has indicated he would like to stay in Parma.
Shunsuke Nakamura's Celtic future was coming under increased scrutiny last night after the club declined an opportunity to reject reports he has a £1 million get-out clause.
Celtic, however, insist they are not expecting Nakamura to seek a move away from Parkhead, based on the premise he has not stated a desire to leave. However, Italian football agent Angelo Massoni has claimed four giants of world football are ready to offer Nakamura big-money contracts to prise him away from Celtic.
Portsmouth have signed defender Martin Cranie from south-coast rivals Southampton on a three-year deal.
