Does Sven Goran-Eriksson have any undestanding of how deeply unpopular he is in England? The man who took England's best generation of players in a long time and turned them into a toothless celebrity sideshow will have a hard time winning friends in England, no matter how badly Steve McClaren does. The Swede's going to get booed and mocked at several Premiership grounds next season so I'm genuinely amazed he's chasing the Manchester City job. Further, if he had a heart Sven wouldn't be subjecting Manchester City fans to his dull brand of "two banks of four" football. They've suffered enough.

City's a club with great support and history. They famously won the FA Cup in 1956, with German keeper Bert Trautmann playing on after breaking his neck. Legend. Then there was the famous midfield of Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee in the late '60s early '70s, which brought a league title in 1967/8 and the European Cup Winners Cup in 1970 (I miss that tournament.) But it's been mostly downhill and ill fortune since then.

There was a lot of money wasted in the '70s (this means you Steve Daley, sorry) and relegation to the old Second Division twice in the '80s. Then a brief resurgence in the early '90s gave way to absolute disaster. They were relegated from the Premiership to the First Division (second tier) in '96, then relegated even further to the Second Division (third tier) in '98. To make things worse, United were enjoying some unbridled success round about the same time.

The fans kept showing up though, bless their Mancunian hearts. After slowly but surely clawing their way back to the Premiership in 2002, moving into their shiny new stadium and maybe - if his bank accounts are still vaild - getting a bilionaire owner, the last thing the blue half of Manchester will want to see is the Svenster.