Thaksin: No summer spree for City
by Tom Adams, 26 April 2008
Thaksin Shinawatra has warned Manchester City fans that there will be no summer spending spree, despite his aim to take the club to the Champions League in two years.
The former Thai prime minister bankrolled Sven Goran Eriksson’s extensive pre-season rebuilding after taking control of the club last year and the Swede has delivered City’s best ever Premier League points tally in response.
There have been suggestions that Eriksson’s job could be on shaky ground after a poor second half to the season but Shinawatra has confirmed that the Swede is performing well within expectations with regards the club’s position in the table.
Europe is now the target for next season but the club will shun any big money signings until a place in the Champions League is a possibility.
"I have a definite plan, a strategy: the first year top 10; the second year to qualify for Europe; and the third we want to be in the top four and qualify for the Champions League," Shinawatra said in City’s matchday programme.
"We have to fit the plan. I know from what we have shown already this year that a top six spot will not be too much pressure but to break into the top four will.
"So that is when I will be prepared to spend a lot of money; to take us into the top four.
"The message is this: I will not be spending huge amounts of money this summer but next summer I will."
Shinawatra was present at Eastlands to witness City’s disappointing 3-2 defeat to Fulham on Saturday and the timing of his arrival in the country was no doubt rued by Eriksson.
The City owner will speak to the former England manager about his future in the coming days and Eriksson made no attempt to disguise his anger at the team’s performance as Fulham came away with an unlikely win.
“It was very disappointing, especially for the fans, who were fantastic again today, even after the game,” said Eriksson.
“But I’m very disappointed, we gave away three points and we thought we had won the game with 20 minutes to go. If you have the attitude that if you lose the ball you don’t need to try to get it back, then anything is possible.
“We had a good attitude for more than an hour, but that went, we gave away the win and it’s bad.
“All the teams around us play each other on Sunday, and they all can’t lose unfortunately so we’ll see. I’ll look at the table then, but of course it’s going to be much more difficult now. We had to win today and we gave it away.”