More on the takeover

The takeover was officially confirmed yesterday, and the new ownership (or Chairman at least) filled the sports pages of the all the press yesterday, outlining their plans for the club (with a statement posted on the mcfc.co.uk), discussing in particular the Academy, transfer targets and Mark Hughes's role (describing him as an honest man, a leader').

As I posted previously, the statements we have seen recently have been noticeable for the reticence and more reserved tone than those which eminated in the immediate aftermath of the takeover announcement.

Particularly striking was their backing for Hughes and Garry Cook:

"Mark Hughes is as good as they get and we are backing him all the way," the new chairman, Khaldoon al Mubarak, said yesterday. "One thing I have made very clear to Mark is that any player he wants comes from him. I'm a fan, not an expert. It is Mark who runs the club and Mark who will make the football decisions. We are here to support and make financial decisions, but we are not here to teach Mark or [the executive chairman] Garry Cook what to do.

"They are the professionals, we trust them, we have confidence in them and we are going to support them. We are here to learn. There is a dynasty here in the making. But once owners start thinking they know better than the coach, it's a recipe for disaster."

Whilst no doubt they will have their own ideas and plans for the club - particularly for in terms of recouping their investment, it is pleasing to see that it does appear that the new ownership are a sensible lot in terms of their immediate expectations and also their backing for the current management (club and playing side), and a breath of fresh air following the nonesense that was by and large seen during Thaksin's reign.

Takeover confirmed

Following the announcement on 1st September 2008, relating to the potential investment in Manchester City Football Club Ltd by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan and his group, the Club is delighted to confirm that the process of due diligence has now been concluded by all appropriate parties. As a result of the conclusion of negotiations and all related contracts, the purchase of the football club from UK Sports Investments Ltd (UKSIL) has been finalised and the formal change of ownership of the football club will take place on Tuesday 23rd September 2008 and a further statement will be issued in due course.

>>mcfc.co.uk

Since the stories that first eminated in the wake of the takeover, we have seen a real change in terms of the potential approach from the new owners.

Far more emphasis has now been placed on talk of the Academy, and building on the existing foundations that are in place as opposed to grandiose plans of wantonly throwing millions of pounds in the hope of assembling a galaxy of world stars.

Given the seismic changes that the club has undergone in recent weeks, and the potential possibilities now open to us, it is imperative that there is strong management in place, and reports do suggest that the new ownership have been impressed with Mark Hughes and have no plans to replace him.

This is a good move for me, as from the short period of time that Hughes has been in charge he has been impressive in how he is handling the role, in what is in all honesty a huge step up for him in terms of his time at Blackburn.

He of course lacks experience, but definitely displays strong leadership. He will be undoubtedly tested but does seem to have what it takes to succeed and is very much his own man so could be the perfect choice for what is a crucial position, and dare I say it, a better option than Sven would have been?

Trying to make sense of it all

As the dust settles on September 1st 2008, we are perhaps now just coming to terms with the momentous changes that the club underwent in the space of less than 24 hours.

Thaksin gone, mega-rich owners in and then the 'blockbuster' signing promised all summer heralded a new dawn in every sense for City.

In the ensuing days, plenty has been written and speculated, but central to it all appears to be two issues - the financial muscle the club now has and that the whole fabric of the club has altered now the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) has gained control.

Ultimately, I don't think any of us will bemoan Thaksin's departure (whoever came in) - with the kindest words being said he did the decent thing in selling up. The whiff of scandal was always around which made the situation of him in charge an uncomfortable one, but once it appeared the charges were going to stick (not to mention the vast reserves of money were not available) his being in charge was a more unpalatable prospect as time grew on.

Thankfully, the new owners do not appear to have skeletons in the closet. But what they do have is cash, and pots of it. When your new owners have the financial capability to blow any other club in the world away it is a dizzying prospect indeed.

We have already seen evidence of their intentions, in stating their desire for success and also the bids slapped in for Berbatov, Gomes and Villa, and of course, the ultimate capture of Robinho for a new record of £32.5 million.

There has been plenty of outlandish comments and claims also appearing, and what it has done is changed the focus and outlook of the club. The Abramovich era at Chelsea has not met with universal approval with many of the 'old guard' complaining of the club having sold out and being unrecognisable from the club they once knew.

This is all true of course and the landscape inevitably has changed. Personally, and not just at City, I am uneasy in some ways that football clubs can just be snapped up on a whim by foreign billionaires and operated with such huge debts, but the reality is football has ceased from being a game to being a business some time ago, and now clubs are being run along the same lines as multi-national corporations (which they effectively now aware). The days of millionaires owning Premier League clubs is fast becoming a thing of the past, and to now be on a level playing field in terms of competing is a stunning position to be in.

We know this will led to changes as success is hunted at a relentless pace. As happy as Mark Hughes must be with recent events, the pressure levels on him have just been ratcheted up tenfold with Champions League surely having to be achieved by the 2009/10 season.

I hope though that there is a degree of patience and a realisation that we are still a way of Champions League status and there is not an insatiable demand for immediate success or to hell with the consequences.

Given that money is the driving force in football (and particularly for footballers), it is a heady prospect though as we all speculate on just who could be arriving at the club over the next 12 months. Henry, Fabregas, Torres, Ronaldo. They have all been mentioned by the new owners.

We know however from the recent experience of Real Madrid that simply throwing money at star names and then trying to fit them into a side does not always equate to success, and it will be important to see that a team is built as much as simply collecting superstars.

I don't doubt that success will ultimately be achieved as the new owners want something and they sure as hell are going all out for it. But could there be a price, and perhaps importantly, do we care?

The unlimited wealth of the new owners can now (theoretically at least) add any player at any cost, but could the knock on be astronomical increases in ticket prices, the freezing out of many fans to be replaced by a new wealthier breed?

Will the Academy players who have been nurtured so well at the club and developed into first team players be cast aside as the club stockpiles a bloated squad of costly players?

All possibilities it has to be said, and that City 'identity' so often spoken of could well become a thing of the past, but whilst the memory of 12 months ago is still fresh when we thought Thaksin heralded a new dawn, it really is hard to look at it in any way but positive with us now being on the cusp of a never before seen era for the club.

Ultimately football fans though want success. City fans more than most have been starved of it so given the opportunity to taste this success is something that will be grabbed with both hands - whatever the consequences.

Most will be still be getting our heads around just exactly what has happened this week, and trying to digest it all and contemplate what it will all mean. I popped down to the stadium (or Middle Eastlands?) at lunchtime yesterday and it was a hive of activity with plenty of queues at the ticket office and I don't doubt that the 'Full House' signs will be going up again soon enough as such a buzz and a lift has been created.

It is almost a pity that we have to now wait 10 days or so for the first game to come around, but what a build up there will be to it as we face off against Chelsea, the model I guess for what the new owners are looking to achieve.

There is no doubt though that this is a fantastic opportunity that has been presented, and one which I could never imagined the club benefiting from - and it puts the thoughts we had when Thaksin took over well into the shade as we now contemplate the very real prospect of ending the long and painful wait for a trophy.

Whatever happens, this new era is likely to be one hell of a ride, with so many positives to look forward to, and who knows how it will ultimately turn out.

But whilst we are on that ride, I guess we are going to just sit back and enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Takeover confirmed

This caught me completely by surprise this morning as the first I heard was a phone call from my brother to say we had been sold to Arab investors.

It now turns out that talks have been underway for around three weeks for them to gain control of the club - despite Thaksin's previous approach (via Garry Cook) that it was only additional investment he was seeking, not a full takeover.

For whatever reason though, Thaksin has decided to divest himself of the club and given the way his tenure has panned out over the past 13 months or so, there won't be too many tears shed at his departure given his recent political and legal woes that have cast a huge shadow over the club and threatened the future progress.

It is a remarkably quick chain of events, but the club have confirmed a period of due dilligence will now be entered and and the new owners have been quick to outline their very lofty ambitions.

Although no price for the club has been mentioned, the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) - profiled on the guardian.co.uk, are believed to be an investment group specifically set up with the aim of purchasing the club. They are believed to be seriously rich with Abu Dhabi holding approximately 10% of the worlds oil reserves.

Initial reports suggest that they are not looking to make wholesale changes at the club, and believed to have given their backing to Mark Hughes over personnel matters.

At board level, the group will have one representative - Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, who was profiled on telegraph.co.uk, where he was described as 'a one man publicity machine' and likened to 'Donald Trump'.

Some stories suggested that Thaksin would remain on the board, but a likely nominal title of Honorary President is a more likely option.

It's still quite early to digest the whole news, but the fact that the Thaksin regime is no longer is surely a positive for the club as a whole, and the new owners appear to tick the right boxes.

The danger of course is that the intentions of the new owners may not be known and having being bitten by Thaksin, there is a wariness about being takeover, but on face value it is an undoubted positive with the potential of a huge injection of investment being made available - and at the very least, the off field distractions that came with Thaksin hopefully a thing of the past.

Five Live to feature Shinawatra

Tonight on Five Live Sport at 9pm is a feature entitled 'A Fit and Proper Premiership' - looking at the raft of foreign ownership that has come into the Premier League, and expect much focus of the programme to be on our new owner.

Club to de-list from Plus Markets

Thailand's ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra has gained
effective control of Manchester City football club and will delist it from the
stock exchange, his lawyer said Monday.
"Thaksin has gained control with a 75 percent stake in
Man City. The next stage is to delist the club from the stock market to become a
completely private company," Noppadon told reporters.

It was always an inevitable, and hardly a shock when the 75% figure was achieved and once the move is complete I guess we will see whether it becomes the armageddon that some have predicted.

There were comments attributed to Shinawatra's lawyer which also suggested there could be players from Italy, Brazil, Sweden and Thailand's national side joining the side - although I don't believe he has always held too much authority when speaking on behalf of the new owner.

So far, all has appeared to go well since the takeover - and certainly Shinawatra's comments in interviews have appeared positive in terms of the current and future plans for the club.

Obviously, it is only early days in the Shinawatra regime and there is the spectre of the charges against him hanging over at the moment, but as he has now gained full control there is little we (as fans) can do at this time apart from to take his actions at face value - and hope that the clubs best interests are always put at the forefront.

Board make further offer announcement

The club announced some further details today in respect of the offer for the club. It is all fairly long winded so the link to the full story is here.

In summary, it appears as though just over 80% of the shares have now been acquired by Thaksin Shinawatra, a figure which is still short of the 90% mark required for the compulsory acquisition for him to gain total control of the club.

Update:

Thanks to the anonymous poster in the comments section for pointing out the paragraph regarding the request to cancel the admission of shares on the Plus Markets as of 23rd July (Monday):

As a result of UKSIL having declared the Offer
unconditional in all respects and having acquired, by virtue of its
shareholdings and acceptances of the Offer, Manchester City Shares carrying at
least 75.0 per cent. of the voting rights of Manchester City, UKSIL announces
that it has requested PLUS Markets to cancel the admission of Manchester City
Shares to trading on PLUS Markets with effect from 4:30 pm on 23 July
2007.
Any cancellation of admission to trading of Manchester City Shares will
significantly reduce the liquidity and marketability of any Manchester Shares
which are not acquired under the Offer and their value may be materially and
adversely affected as a consequence.
UKSIL now intends to procure that
Manchester City be re-registered as a private limited company.

Shinawatra facing court date

Thailand's exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra
moved a step closer to facing corruption charges today after the supreme court
agreed to hear the allegations against him.
Just as Mr Thaksin appeared to
be within days of closing a £81.6m deal to buy Manchester City football club,
Thailand's highest court for the first time ordered him to answer accusations
surrounding a multi-million pound land deal.

-Guardian.

The date of the hearing against him is scheduled to be August 14th - which falls conveniently on the eve of our first home game, lending some weight perhaps to the suggestion that the charges are indeed politically and personally motivated, and perhaps designed to damage any publicity Shinawatra may receive for attending the first game of the season.

The article goes onto to say (quoting his lawyers) that there is no chance he will attend the hearings and Shinawatra himself has said he will only return after the democratic elections this December.

Rightly or wrongly, it does beg the question that for all the vast sums of money and assets that have been frozen, the only charges brought against him (at this stage) are an £11 million land deal in which seemingly it is his wife who is mainly suggested as the 'guilty' party.

There was another interesting article which suggested that a conviction in abstentia could result in Shinawatra failing the 'fit and proper' person test that all owners have to pass, but assuming the takeover is completed I do not see that their is any legal grounds which can force Shinawatra to then sell the club and relinquish control - as a safeguard though this may have been a reason to appoint his son and daughter onto the board.

Perhaps the sooner that the season does get under way, the media may push to one side the off-field distractions that have been brought to the club with the takeover and concentrate solely on footballing matters.

Or perhaps not.

Sell your shares....or else

"On Friday Thaksin secured the last two holdings of 3 per cent, leaving only small shareholders of 2 per cent or less.
With City's players to return to pre-season training next week, the club are eager for Thaksin to wrap up his takeover as soon as possible.
"We would appeal to our fans now with small shareholdings to sell as quickly as possible," said a City spokesman.
"Thaksin is approaching the 70 per cent mark now. Things have not been helped by the postal strike today which has delayed things, but he could reach 75 per cent by early next week if things go well.
"If our fans want to see the pace towards a new future they want, then they need to get cracking and sell quickly to speed things along"

-Sky Sports.



Nothing like a nice bit of gentle prodding to move things along eh?

Shinawatra's increase share

Thaksin Shinawatra's bid to gain control of more than 75% of the club appears to be gathering pace with the news that a further 5,343,622 shares were sold today, at the offer price of 40p - likely BSkyB's share of just under 10% in the club.

This holding would give him around 65% of the club and further push on with plans to rubber-stamp the appointment of Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager.

Nearly there...

So it seems that the appointment of Sven-Goran Eriksson as our next manager is all but assured, given that reports suggest he has agreed 'in principle' to a three-year deal at the club and already lined up Roland Andersson as his number 2.

What seems to be holding the official announcement of the appointment is the need for Thaksin Shinawatra to acquire (at least) a holding of 75% in the club, following on from the announcement of the offer document to the Plus Markets earlier this morning (and something the club confirmed):

On 21st June 2007 the Boards of Manchester City and UK
Sports Investmentsannounced a recommended cash offer by UK Sports Investments to
acquire theentire issued and to be issued share capital of Manchester City other
than theManchester City Deferred Shares. The Board of UK Sports Investments
announcesthat the Offer Document and Form of Acceptance relating to the Offer
are beingposted to Manchester City Shareholders today.The Offer will remain open
for acceptance until no later than 1.00 p.m. on 17July 2007.

Once the announcement is official I'll post up more on the appointment, but suffice to say at this stage I'm very much behind the appointment and think this is a positive long term move for us.

It hasn't stopped the cynics from piping up though.

MP questions Shinawatra takeover

Thanks to Ed for the link on this story.

It seems that the subject of our takeover (and Dr. Shinawatra in general) has made parliament.

The right honourable David Taylor MP (Leicester NW) has waded into the issue, asking the Sports Minister Richard Caborn:

"The Stevens inquiry into corruption has shrunk to
investigating just 17 transfer deals whilst wide concerns about the
vulnerability of clubs to takeover by international moguls and politicians
remain unaddressed.
"Will you say what protections, for instance, the
Manchester City supporters have against the attentions of the unsavoury Thaksin
Shinawatra or is it forever the fate of football fans to be fleeced by flaky
foreign financiers?"

Caborn replied to Taylor that he wanted to avoid the top flight becoming "a billionaire's playground" and intended to meet the football bodies.

As Ed pointed out, quite what the issue of a takeover of a football club based in Manchester has to do with an MP responsible for Leicester NW is anyone's guess, and by associating the 'unsavoury' Shinawatra with the phrase 'flaky foreign financier' is a little rich perhaps considering that Leicester City (his local club) have in recent times been taken over by Milan Mandaric.

Whatever the outcome of Shinawatra's tenure at the club, if not for nothing it is certainly set to be an interesting time, and undoubtedly will command a high media profile.

Claim and counter-claim

In what is likely to be an all-too familiar episode over the coming months, the club found itself dragged into the Shinawatra affair as it was announced that there was to be an investigation into the origin of the funds used to finance the bid for the club.

After recently having a vast chunk of his assets frozen by the current Thai regime, they are seemingly none too happy at him having managed to be able to lodge his bid for the club, with Chalongphob Sussangkarn, Thailand's finance minister saying:

"This money which would be used for Manchester City is still
a mystery to Thailand, so I cannot tell where the money will be coming from," he
said."I am sure the asset examination commission will look at the source of
these funds and try to see whether they are legal funds that were taken out or
by other means."If the deal goes ahead and the money is paid they will try to
look at it."We don't know yet how he is going to finance it. We won't know until
the deal is finalised."

This was something which was refuted by Keith Harris, who is confident that the monies used to purchase the club is all above board, saying:

"The money to buy Man City is clean. It has been
legitimately and transparently transferred to the UK."
"A number of his bank accounts have been frozen. Some
of them are personal and some corporate," said Harris.
"But the money used to
finance the takeover and used to invest in the club are in bank accounts in
England and beyond their (the Thai government's) reach".

As I have mentioned previously, one of the dangers attached to the Shinawatra takeover is this very scenario, where his political opponents try to make gain by continually investigating his activities.

This may well just be political manouevering onbehalf of the Thai government, an attempt to put a dampener on some of the publicity generated by his takeover, but still, it doesn't reflect too well on the club and merely provides further ammunition to those in the media who seemingly have an appetite to continually target and criticise the club.

Time to end the Shinawatra saga?

With further developments in the Thaksin Shinawatra takeover saga yesterday, is it time that the club now pulled the plug on negotiations with him?

After having had several of his bank accounts frozen last week, his advisor announced that the takeover deal was still on - but this left the club to supposedly 'demand assurances' from him that he could still complete a deal.

Now comes the news that Shinawatra and his wife have been ordered back to Thailand to face further charges of concealing assets, and must do so before June 29th.

Despite all of this, there were further assurances that the takeover is again at an 'advanced stage' and a £120 million bid could be imminent - all of this linked in with the search for a new manager.

Shinawatra (and his wife) may well be innocent of all charges, but the interest generated by the takeover has hardly been positive for the club, and should he complete a takeover could well be damaging in the long term as media interest would surely increase should he become the new owner.

From afar, it appears that in Thailand there is currently a very political battle going on between Shinawatra and the new rulers of the country, with Shinawatra seemingly keen to trade on his populist status whilst the military rulers are seemingly determined to crush Shinawatra. The problem in all of this is that the club, our club, is in danger of being used as a political pawn in this battle.

If he does complete a takeover then it will hardly be the end of investigations into his time as PM, and the same people who are currently gunning for him may well only step up their attempts to discredit him if his ownership of the club portrays him in a good light with the Thai people.

Regardless of the financial impact he may be able to bring to the club - and the undeniable fact that the current regime have thrown everything into the Shinawatra lot (including sacking a manager), is it now time to reconsider our dealings with him and cut our losses before we get further along into something which could have an altogether more signifcant impact further down the line?

No news is no news

THAKSIN Shinawatra, the would-be owner of Manchester City,
has had a further £123million frozen by authorities in Thailand.
The Asset
Examination Committee froze £830m last week, believed to be from the sale of
telecommunications company Shin Corp.
After that initial suspension of funds
Shinawatra's representatives insisted that the ex-Prime Minister of Thailand
still had enough funds to complete the takeover deal.

-MEN.

This coming only hours after he apparantly 'assured' the board that he has sufficient funds in place to continue with the takeover, and that a deal could be completed 'this week'.

I guess it is the dog days of summer news wise at the moment as the slightest inkling of news is sending most of the media outlets scurrying to fill up the required column and online inches.

This is none moreso than with any 'news' of the impending managerial appointment. From today's newsfeeds the press is split between the opinion that either Sven-Goran Eriksson or Juande Ramos were set to be appointed, although the weekend brought us new candidates in the shape of Didier Deschamps,Mark Hughes, Jean Tigana and Chris Coleman.

One thing is for certain with all of this. Whoever is ultimately appointed will have beaten off the biggest ever reported shortlist in managerial history.

Noel Gallagher on matters City related

"This takeover is never going to happen now, because the
government has had his bank accounts frozen. It's pure Man City. I'm loving
it."The fixture list comes out on Thursday, we haven't got a manager, we've only
got half a team and we haven't sold any season tickets. It's brilliant."I'm
thinking of mounting a hostile takeover - me and Mike Pickering. I reckon we
could scrape together about £400,000 in cash. I reckon we would get it for
that."

Noel Gallagher - sounding a touch well oiled, had a brief interview with the BBC about the takeover, managerial situation and Joey Barton.

Unlike myself, his actually aired and the full link is here.

Takeover deal up in the air

Reports emerged this morning suggesting that a full, formal bid for the club by Thaksin Shinawatra was imminent and that weeks of uncertainty was shortly to come to an end.

However, news this afternoon shot those reports out of the water, and at a very best scenario it now leaves the club hoping Shinawatra can somehow re-structure his takeover deal, whilst a worse case scenario sees us back to square one with a board keen to sell, no manager in place and having lost two of the better players in recent seasons.

All of this of course stems from the news that his assets and numerous bank accounts in Thailand have been frozen today. The Times reported:

Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand,
had his assets frozen today just as he was closing in on a deal to buy
Manchester City.
An anti-graft committee, investigating Mr Thaksin in
Bangkok, say they have sufficient evidence of corruption to freeze his bank
accounts.
Mr Thaksin, who was removed from power in a bloodless coup last
year, was undergoing due diligence inquiries and thought to be on the verge of
making an official bid for the Premiership club. His aides refused to accept
that the deal would be aborted.
“The committee found evidence that Thaksin
during his time as prime minister committed corruption and illegal acts as well
as being unusually rich.”

Following this announcement, Shinawatra's lawyers announced that “Of course this is going to affect the Manchester City bid, but it is not off. Some things may have to be restructured.” All of which led the club to issue the following statement:

“The board notes the information emanating out of Thailand
today in respect of Dr Shinawatra and the freezing of his assets.“The board and
its advisers are in discussion with Dr Shinawatra’s advisers to confirm the
implications of these developments in respect of their client’s interest in
potentially making an offer for the company.“These discussions and those between
the company and other interested parties may or may not lead to an offer being
made for the company.”

Shinawatra can appeal against the decision, but this is believed to take anywhere upto 60 days to go through - which will of course take us upto the start of the season, leaving us in a situation that is beyond thinking but may become a reality if the board have burnt bridges with other potential investors (Ray Ranson) to try and seduce Shinawatra.

Is the Shinawatra deal dead in the water? It seems likely that it now is, as in effect he will have to submit a brand new and re-structured proposal to the board to buy the club. The worrying prospect is of course his interest in the club was merely a flirtation to drum up publicity and PR to attempt to avoid the very decision which has now been handed down today.

Once again we appear to be in a bit of a mess from top to bottom and as we head towards pre-season, there is little appearing on the horizon to foster much optimism.

Confusion reigns with Ranieri 'announcement'

Another day, another angle.

A day after Claudio Ranieri was believed to be leaning towards a stay in Serie A with Parma, and amidst stories that the Shinawatra deal was on the verge of collapse, comes reports that Ranieri has agreed to take the vacant City job once the takeover by Shinawatra is completed.

Sky Sports were first to report this earlier this evening and there hasn't been much follow-up from other news outlets (or the club) in actually confirming the story as legitimate.

This of course all comes after the afternoon news that Ray Ranson had withdrawn his offer - but may re-enter the race should Shinawatra make a formal bid, which on the back of the Ranieri reports (if true) seems to be the end of any hopes that Ranson has of gaining control of the club.

If Ranieri has agreed to take the job, he must have almost certainly been tipped off that the takeover will be completed in the not too distant future, given that by doing this he appears to be severing his relationship with Parma.

Hopefully, the next week will draw a line under all of this and we can finally have new owners and a new manager in place, and get on with the important business of trying to put together a side for next season - something that is imperative given the lack of international football this summer is leading to sides bolstering their squads even at this early stage.

Shinawatra takeover 'going smoothly'

From reutuers:

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hopes to
complete a takeover of English Premier League soccer club Manchester City in
early June, his spokesman said on Friday.
"Everything is going smoothly,"
Thaksin's lawyer Noppadon Pattama told Reuters. "We hope the deal will be
formally concluded by early June."
Thaksin, who has not returned to Thailand
since being ousted in a bloodless coup in September, made an indicative proposal
to Manchester City earlier this month but no further details have been released
since.
But Noppadon said a formal tender had been made and the deal could be
wrapped up as early as June 2.
But he still declined to confirm the size of
the takeover, which a leading Thai newspaper put at 100 million pounds.

There has been plenty of concern about the length of time the deal is taking, leading to some speculation that the proposed deal may have even fallen through. A difficulty is that there is little in the way that the club can be publicly comment on whilst any takeover is in process - which invariably leads to speculation and rumour.

Early June was always the likely timescale that a Shinawatra deal and if the words from his lawyer are to be taken at face value then it seems the deal is on course to be completed.

Shinawatra makes formal bid

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has made a
formal bid to take over English soccer club Manchester City, his spokesman said
on Saturday.
"What I can say now is we have tendered a bid for the team,"
Thaksin's lawyer Noppadon Pattama told Reuters by telephone.
Thaksin, who has
not returned to Thailand since a bloodless military putsch in September, made an
indicative proposal to Manchester City earlier this month but no further details
have been released since.
"We had to be silent because we had to follow the
stock regulations as we are trying to buy a listed company," said Noppadon.
A
leading Thai newspaper said on Saturday that a 100 million- pound deal had
already been reached, but Noppadon said this was premature.
"The deal is not
formally or legally concluded yet," he said when asked to comment on the Thai
Rath report.
The report also said billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin would
become club chairman and that he wanted to bring in former Chelsea coach Claudio
Ranieri to replace sacked manager Stuart Pearce.

Full story from reuters.com.