The City Takeover Is On

And so the Man City saga continues with news that Thaksin Shinawatra has lodged an 81.6 million pound takeover of the club, backed by the City board. This was always going to happen because yesterday I wrote about it not happening for a while, writer's curse. Anyway, I stick to the point made yesterday that Thaksin is still trying to put a good public face on his situation, and I'm sure the man does have 81.6 million pounds to spend, but I still think the City board should not have backed this bid. There is too much cloud over the deal for it to go ahead. What happens if Thaksin is charged by the Thai government and extradited? Where does that leave City? There is no way that a man who's assets are being frozen, and who is under investigation for corruption, should be allowed to take over a Premiership Club. Even if he is innocent, the fact that he is under investigation should rule him out of a bid, and though City could certainly use the backing, this deal should be stopped as soon as possible. If Thaksin is cleared of charges, then fair enough, let him make another bid, but I hope the Premier League realies that, at the moment, the circumstances around this deal are too volatile to let the bid go through.

Yesterday saw our U21's go out to Holland at the semi-final stage of the European U21 chamionship. It was a very brave performance for a group of tired players, we lost 13-12 on penalties after holding out for 20 mins of Extra time with 10 men, and drawing 1-1 in normal time. It was a fantastic effort, and for England to have actually got 12 penalties was, in itself, an achievement. It should give the youngsters a good experience of the pressure situations they will come up against later in their careers. To be honest, the Dutch were the better side but we countered their technical ability by playing ugly English football, and the Dutch equaliser in the 89th minute of normal was a cruel blow. But, it was a good learning experience, and hopefully these guys will have a good break and come back refreshed for next season. A note on Stuart Pearce, I have never thought that he had the tactical knowledge to succeed as a top level manager but he has done a pretty good job with the U21's considering the injuries, suspensions and the Bentley situation, so fair play to him and I hope that they give him the job on a permanent basis so he can develop as a manager.

Not much else going on, few transfer rumours flying about but nothing we haven't heard before so I shall comment later if there are any developments. I'll be back...tomorrow.