Thaksin rubbishes reports
Mike Whalley
16/ 5/2008
MANCHESTER City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has strenuously denied newspaper reports suggesting the entire first team squad is up for sale.
The former Thai Prime Minister also said reports that John Wardle had apologised to the players for selling the club were untrue.
Thaksin told
http://www.mcfc.co.uk: “There is absolutely no truth to this story or any of the allegations. I appreciate the progress and performance of the whole squad, managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, this season.”
Despite the comments Sven-Goran Eriksson has admitted that there have been no player contract talks at Eastlands for the best part of two months.
He said: “I don ‘t think there have been any discussions about contracts for six, seven, eight weeks.”
Alerted
That has alerted the Blues’ rivals to their best players, with Tottenham eyeing keeper Joe Hart and winger Martin Petrov, Newcastle and West Ham keen on skipper Richard Dunne and Michael Johnson continuing to interest Liverpool.
Defender Micah Richards has also been forced to fend off reports that he is set for a move across town to neighbours United.
Richards said: “I’m happy at Manchester City, particularly after what I feel has been a successful season for us.
“Manchester United are a great club with a great manager in Sir Alex Ferguson, but I’m only concentrating on regaining full fitness.
“I hope that the Mr Eriksson’s position is sorted soon one way or the other so that we can focus on football instead.”
Several fringe players were already set to be shown the door at the end of the season, including Georgios Samaras, Bernardo Corradi, Rolando Bianchi, Paul Dickov and Matthew Mills, who have all been out on loan.
Keepers Andreas Isaksson and Kasper Schemichel were also both set to quit t he club in search of regular first-team football.