The deposed Thai prime minister wants a high-profile appointment and has preferred Eriksson despite strong reservations within the club and in his own team of headhunters.

In the kind of confused plot that perhaps only City could be capable of, Eriksson is now among the leading candidates to be offered the job if Thaksin's takeover goes through, notwithstanding the misgivings of everyone in the recruitment process bar Thaksin himself.

City have missed out on his first-choice target, Claudio Ranieri, as well as having unsuccessful talks with Didier Deschamps, and Thaksin seems unimpressed by Sevilla's Juande Ramos.

The Guardian reported that Alistair Mackintosh, the City chief executive, has been pinning his hopes on enticing Ramos away from Spain once Sevilla have played in the Copa del Rey final against Getafe on Saturday.  

Before then, however, Thaksin hopes to make a formal offer for the club, and if everything goes to plan he believes he will be in a position to make his own call about the next manager.

The mention of Eriksson's name represents a remarkable turnaround given that Thaksin's London-based advisers initially scoffed at the idea of turning to the former England manager.

Thaksin has all but convinced City he can finance his takeover despite an anti-corruption committee in Thailand freezing about £830m of his fortune. But the club have been without a manager since the final day of last season and pressure is mounting on Mackintosh to make an appointment as soon as possible.

The Guardian