Hey, Thaksin, leave our Sven alone : Man City fans

It was less than five minutes on the clock at Anfield yesterday when the fans expressed their feeling on news report that Thaksin dismissed their manager; Sven Goran Eriksson, at the end of season.

"Hey, Thaksin, leave our Sven alone," read a banner.

"We don't need no Phil Scolari, we don't need no Mourinho," they sang to the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In Wall.

"I'd rather say goodbye to the Thai," one banner read in a stadium that has become accustomed to anti-American placards as Liverpool's owners have continued to generate anger throughout their feud.

It was an unequivocal show of support for beleaguered Eriksson and one not lost on the City owner's Thai acolytes, who shifted uncomfortably in their seats when the chant was explained to them.

That task fell to City chief executive Alastair Mackintosh, known to be opposed to the decision to oust Eriksson, but who found himself in an invidious position yesterday as the Thai brigade's unofficial chaperone to Anfield.

 Former City chairman John Wardle, also against Eriksson being sacked, smiled ruefully as the pro-Eriksson chants reached a crescendo. As someone who put so much into City, Wardle is as dismayed as every fan.

At first, City directors Jack Srisumrid and Sasin Monvois in may have thought the chants were a show of support for the man who has bankrolled the team to success this season.

But the days when fans affectionately dubbed Shinawatra "Frank" - as in Sinatra - are long gone. They have been replaced by fierce antipathy towards him over his shabby treatment of Eriksson.

Sweden flags in the away section, as well as banner proclaiming "Save Our Sven" were symptomatic of the mood of fans. Anfield was the ground Eriksson used to visit in the 1970s as an aspiring coach with his home-town club of Degerfors.

And it was at Liverpool's stadium where Eriksson's rehabilitation from laughing stock to revered manager was finally completed yesterday.

The Swede's stock could not have been lower at the end of his England reign.

Eriksson was visibly moved by the show of support, turning to applaud City fans when they chanted his name.

Thaksin's impatience and lack of football knowledge look set to plunge City into new turmoil after a season that had promised much.

Eriksson reluctantly accepts they can't force Thaksin into changing his mind. "I don't think so," the former England coach said.

by UK media