Sven-Goran Eriksson's extravagant pre-season spending is
set to go over the £35m mark in the next 48 hours as the Manchester
City manager invests a staggering £22m on four more foreign
signings. Eriksson continues to eschew Britishbased players as he
looks to build City in to a significant Premiership force and is
today expected to complete the £5,5m signing of Fiorentina striker
Valeri Bojinov and invest another £2m in Real Sociedad left-back
Javi Garrido.
City sources also confirmed last night that the club now backed
by the millions of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
hope to pay in the region of £7m for Dinamo Zagreb defender Vedran
Corluka and £7m for Shakthar Donetsk's Brazilian defender Elano
before the end of the week. Already in his month-long reign at the
City of Manchester Stadium, Eriksson has paid £8.8m for Reggina
striker Rolando Bianchi and the Italian has been joined by Gelson
Fernandes, a £2.2m signing from FC Sion, £4.7m Atletico Madrid
striker Martin Petrov and Brazilian midfielder Geovanni, a free
agent who once cost Barcelona £11m.
The combination of millionaire Thai owner Thaksin and a
high-profile coach has turned City into an agent's dream a club
with lots of cash but little time to spend it and even less choice
as Eriksson enters the transfer market at the back end of the
summer. Even the conservative estimates put his transfer kitty at
way in excess of the £50million being mentioned, so the City boss
has two options; pay over the odds for a player or scour the globe
for less obvious some would say more obscure signings.
So far Eriksson seems to have chosen the latter, baulking only at a
£10m asking price for Olympiakos' Mexico striker Nery Castillo.
There has, as yet, been no sign of a British signing, despite
manager Eriksson having extensive knowledge of the Premiership from
his five-anda- half years in charge of England.
For all the excitement surrounding Eriksson's arrival, City fans
could be forgiven for wondering how he is possibly going to mould
his multinational squad into a team by the time the Premiership
season starts again next week. He has eight days and one more
friendly against Valencia on Saturday before City open the
campaign against West Ham. Even for the unflappable Swede, who
found club success at Gothenburg, Benfica and Lazio, it is a tall
order.
Eriksson was also being linked with Australia midfielder Mark
Bresciano from Serie A club Palermo yesterday. He is, after all,
just about the only nationality not in the City squad. 
