On Eriksson – he’s a safe choice, yes. I wonder if he’ll sign Steven Gerrard for 50m. Or Frank Lampard.

I’d like to see Eriksson take the 50m, and blow it on someone big, and then quit in September.

Ok, wait, let me qualify that…

I’d like to see Eriksson do that to ANY club, apart from United nothing personal against city folks

Eriksson’s better than McClaren, who got Boro to the Uefa Cup final (and 7th place the season before, I think). So I guess under Eriksson Uefa Cup place will be the target, although the league is much tougher now.

Bid was accepted today, btw.

I actually live in Thailand and have done for a number of years. It is fairly obvious that none of the previous comments have come from people who know anything about Thailand at the moment.

For your information Thaksin, and his wife, and his children, and at least two of her siblings have all been charged with various crimes, and all face jail terms and fines.

Thaksin’s party was TRT who won two previous elections. I have people who work around me who openly admit that their whole villages voted for TRT because they were paid for by the politicians from Thaksin’s party.

The charges he faces include allowing his wife to buy a very nice piece of prime real estate from the state while he was PM, which was clearly against the constitution – think conflict of interest and you will get the idea. She admits buying it, and he was PM at the time – can’t get more clear than that really.

Another charge involves he and his wife not declaring (think “concealing” or “hiding”) assets which under the Thai constitution a)need to be declared by all politicians each year, and b)are supposed to be sold by cabinet members to stop any potential conflicts of interest.

An earlier charge, which he got off on when he was PM (by a margin of 5-4 judges) was that when he first became PM he was actually in control of his assets (mostly shares in various companies). He claimed he was not in control of these cares as he had “gifted” them to his driver (normally paid about 20000 baht per year here), his maid (paid even less), and his children. His children later sold those shares to Temasek (singapore government). Just this week Thaksin (speaking from his London home) said the children knew nothing about he share sale, becase it was all his choice.

He also said this week he would be buying Man C with money from his childrens accounts – even though this was gifted to them and not under his control.

I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the picture.

It is true he was democratically elected, and it is true that there is now a military government in Thailand. Howvere, The COUP was overwhelmingly welcomed by the people on the streets (think something like the French revolution without the blood). It is also true that the evidence has now been collected, he and his family have been charged, and it is looking very likely that if he returns to Thailand he will most likely be found guilty and ace jail time.

His wife was asked to come to Thailand (from nearby Singapore) this week to hear another charge against her, but her lawyer came to the court at the last minute and said she couldn’t attend because she had a heart condition…….

Would anyone want this guy owning their beloved home town club? This is the year after there is already claims of corruption within the English transfer system, and the whole West Ham – Tevez, Mascherano thing.

I would just like to note – for my own safety – that the matters expressed by me above are effectively taken from the media in Thailand and are in no way my own ideas or opinions.

Sven on the other hand would be a different matter……with 50m he won’t win the league, but then he won’t do any worse than last year, and what he did at Lazio on initially limited funding was quite impressive.

Here are then stats for all of England managers in history:

Manager ……………/ England career / Pld / Won / Drawn / Lost / GF / GA / Win %
Winterbottom, Walter / 1946 – 1962 / 139 / 78 / 33 / 28 / 383 / 196 / 56.11%
Ramsey, Alf / 1963 – 1974 / 113 / 69 / 27 / 17 / 224 / 98 / 61.06%
Mercer, Joe (caretaker) / 1974 / 7 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 9 / 7 / 42.85%
Revie, Don / 1974 – 1977 / 29 / 14 / 8 / 7 / 49 / 25 / 48.27%
Greenwood, Ron / 1977 – 1982 / 55 / 33 / 12 / 10 / 93 / 40 / 60.00%
Robson, Bobby / 1982 – 1990 / 95 / 47 / 30 / 18 / 151 / 60 / 49.47%
Taylor, Graham / 1990 – 1993 / 38 / 18 / 13 / 7 / 62 / 32 / 47.36%
Venables, Terry / 1994 – 1996 / 23 / 11 / 11 / 1 / 35 / 13 / 47.82%
Hoddle, Glenn / 1996 – 1999 / 28 / 17 / 6 / 5 / 42 / 13 / 60.71%
Wilkinson, Howard (caretaker)/ 1999 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 00.00%
Keegan, Kevin / 1999 – 2000 / 18 / 7 / 7 / 4 / 26 / 15 / 38.88%
Wilkinson, Howard (caretaker) 2000 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 00.00%
Taylor, Peter (caretaker) / 2000 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 00.00%
Eriksson, Sven-G̦ran / 2001 Р2006 / 67 / 40 / 17 / 10 / 128 / 61 / 59.70%
McClaren, Steve / 2006 – 0000 / 10 / 5 / 3 / 2 / 17 / 3 / 50.00%

So the England manager with the best win % is the man under which England experienced its greatest ever success winning that lone star above our crest in 1966; Sir Alfred Ramsey (61.06%)
Next comes the man lead us back into the World Cup in 1998 after a miserable failure to qualify in 1994, though he will be more remembered as the man that was sacked because a he was religious fruitcake ; Glenn Hoddle (60.71%)

Next came the man that under which England qualified their first World Cup in 12 years (1982); Ron Greenwood CBE (60%)

Then, then, only then, comes that Swedish wanker…