Sven set to meet owner

Sven Goran-Eriksson remained silent today on the persistent rumours he is set to be relieved of his duties as Manchester City manager.

The Swede attended a carefully-choreographed press conference at a Bangkok shopping mall and spoke only to thank the Thai public and sponsors for welcoming City on the first leg of the pre-season tour to Asia.

The club, however, confirmed Eriksson is set to meet owner Thaksin Shinawatra, who is reportedly dissatisfied with the second half of the season, which resulted in a ninth-placed finish in the Barclays Premier League, and is said to be ready to replace the former England manager.

“I think there’s probably an opportunity for him (Eriksson) to meet Dr Thaksin here in Bangkok before we go to Hong Kong,” City’s director of communications Paul Tyrrell said.

“But with regards to the manager’s position, we are making no official comment.

“We’ve made no official comment apart from saying that there will be a review held at the end of the season.”

Thaksin has announced plans to conduct a full review of the club, which has placed Eriksson’s position in jeopardy.

“That meeting will be part of a performance review into the whole of the club, which the chairman called for a number of weeks ago,” Tyrrell added.

Eriksson posed for photos with Thaksin’s son and daughter, Khun Panthongthae and Khun Pinthongta, who are directors of City, but did not field questions from the awaiting media.

Dietmar Hamman, Kasper Schmeichel and Ben Mee, the captain of the club’s FA Youth Cup-winning team, were also present, but only exchanged pleasantries with the event comperes about Saturday’s match with Thailand Premier All-Stars.

Tyrrell added Eriksson made the decision not to address the media.

“The manager asked during this time of great forensic analysis of the football club for the players not to be doing interviews and not to be answering questions from the media,” Tyrrell added.

Following Saturday’s match in Bangkok, City will travel to the nearby resort of Pattaya before moving on to Hong Kong next Tuesday for the second leg of their trip.