a lot of hype about sven going to City. Don't think he is very popular do you?

He gets a lot of stick in the English media, most of it unjustified in my opinion.

He has a good club record and he'll be a good appointment for City imo.

agreed... and for all the errors he did make with england, he had a good record... I just wondered how a manager who used players like crespo, veron, nedved and mancini could give heskey 40 caps...

but i'm interested to see him in the premiership.

I am not convinced that Sven will do a great job with average players - give him access to quality players and his a very good domestic manager but I am not so sure he is that good at getting fairly normal players play at a level above what they are usually capable of.

Well he's a sucker for more bad media attention thats for sure, these lot will have a field day.

Still, at least it may take pressure off us being written about all the time.

I am not convinced that Sven will do a great job with average players - give him access to quality players and his a very good domestic manager but I am not so sure he is that good at getting fairly normal players play at a level above what they are usually capable of.

but that's the thing- do you think he would have taken the job without the guarantee of money?

in any case, he's got darius vassel.

He will have some money but I doubt it will be a major wad - I would guess he may have about ?25m to spend at the very maximum and I am not convinced that is enough for him to fix a pretty ropey squad

as long as vassel gets a new contract they'll be okay.

Not sure how he will do there, his record when you look at it is no where near as bad as some make out.

But he brings enough baggage with him (both on and off the pitch) to keep Jose off the back pages for a while.

He'll be meeting MU at the start of the season won't he? That should be fun, SAF can't stand him - wasn't that one of the reasons he renaged on his decision to retire because Sven looked like getting his job?

It will be interesting to see how he does.

I didn't really follow him in Italy, but when he took on the national team job, he came with a huge reputation as a very good club-level manager.

I don't think that international management suited him all that well - I think he will do a lot better with a stable squad that he can work with and develop some kind of a system of play - somthing that he never really achieved with England.

The thing is though, City is a massive drop in quality of players from England and Lazio - so it will be a good test of whether his reputation was justified.

Ok.How do I comment on Sven in an open and unbiased manner? Bearing in mind the bloke's idiotic squad selection at the last World Cup - idiotic as in taking an unfit Michael Owen, an unfit Rooney plus Theo Walcott who had never played a Premier League game and was never going to get a game in the World Cup. And as far as strikers go, that was it. Taking Rooney was a risk, taking Rooney and Owen was daft, taking Rooney, Owen and Walcott was bordering on the criminal. Old news? Yes I know, but this was the same Sven we all know and hate.

The bright side, of course, is that Sven at City will take vast amounts of media attention away from Stamford Bridge.

also Lofty, an more importantly - HE'D NEVER SEEN WALLCOTT PLAY!

As you say, it was bordering criminal.

The only thing he's good for at is sniffing out where the big wages are, and where the old slappers are!

He must be hung like a shire-horse cos it's not his personality surely! Either that or the lad'eeeeee's think Tord Grip is a sex toy

why are you so angry towards him lads, it was after all, only england.

Ok.How do I comment on Sven in an open and unbiased manner? Bearing in mind the bloke's idiotic squad selection at the last World Cup - idiotic as in taking an unfit Michael Owen, an unfit Rooney plus Theo Walcott who had never played a Premier League game and was never going to get a game in the World Cup. And as far as strikers go, that was it. Taking Rooney was a risk, taking Rooney and Owen was daft, taking Rooney, Owen and Walcott was bordering on the criminal. Old news? Yes I know, but this was the same Sven we all know and hate.

I agree with that totally - and I'm a Scotland supporter!

why are you so angry towards him lads, it was after all, only england.

Only England? How dare you?

He certainly knows how to keep getting those great salaries wherever he goes.....

He always seems to be in the right place at the right time to pick up yet another big fat cheque.

Shinawatra has taken his stake in Man City past 25%, so it's a dead on cert that Erikkson will City's new manager:

[web]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/6241052.stm[/web]

Man City have just teleported to an as-yet-undiscovered astral plane of boringness. Happy trails. On a related note, who the hell is left in their squad? I have been updating my PES6 squads and theirs is possibly the smallest in my game.

just to go against the grain a bit, i think city maywell have just made an excellent signing with erikkson. ok, he was rubbish with england, but a club job is completely different. and hes done pretty well with his clubs.