City make haste in hunt for manager

Manchester City are in advanced talks with their chosen candidates to replace Stuart Pearce as manager and will discover today whether the former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra can proceed with his proposed takeover of the club.

City officials assumed responsibility for the appointment of their next manager on Monday, when it was announced that Thailand's military government had frozen £830m of Thaksin's assets as part of an investigation into corruption during his premiership. Despite allowing the prospective new owners to pursue Claudio Ranieri and several foreign coaches with the promise of a £50m transfer fund, the club have had their own managerial shortlist since sacking Pearce four weeks ago and are understood to have made rapid progress in that search in the past 24 hours.

The need for City to follow their own agenda may well intensify today when Thaksin informs the club's chairman, John Wardle, whether he has the finances and the will to push ahead with his proposed £90m takeover. Representatives of the ousted prime minister continue to insist he has funds outside Thailand that will enable him to bid for the club, but the latest controversy to plague him and the threat of further delays in his takeover attempt could scupper those ambitions permanently.

"It will not affect his intention to buy Manchester City," insisted Thaksin's lawyer Noppadol Pattama. "The freezing of his money could delay any investment, for example to purchase Manchester City, but I don't think we'll have a problem. We still intend to carry on with the deal. We will find a solution."

The Professional Footballers' Association is struggling to break the impasse between City and Joey Barton over a £300,000 payment that has held up his £5.5m transfer to Newcastle United.

The 24-year-old's agent, Willie McKay, asked the PFA to mediate in the dispute last week when City rejected Barton's demand that he is entitled to a pay-off under the terms of his contract. The midfielder, whose weekly wage will rise from £20,000 to £60,000 should he move to St James' Park, claims that he is owed £300,000 as he did not ask for a transfer from City, whereas the club argue his request to speak to Newcastle and West Ham once they had triggered a release clause in his contract represents a transfer request in all but writing.

The PFA official Mick McGuire admitted: "I have spoken to Joey, his agent and Alistair Mackintosh [City's chief executive] and I also intend talking to Sam Allardyce at Newcastle. But this is not an easy situation because City believe Joey is not entitled to the money. City believe that he effectively asked for a transfer."

Allardyce, the Newcastle manager, delivered a broadside at City, saying that he was "flabbergasted" by the delay, but Barton's employers believe they are under no obligation to back down.

"They [City] are out of order," insisted Allardyce. "This is a confidential issue that should not have been made public. I'm flabbergasted and want the situation resolved. I can't understand it because City didn't pay anything for this player as he came through the youth system, and they are selling him for over £5m."

City's spokesman Paul Tyrell responded: "At no time did Manchester City make any comment about Joey's contract, the contents of which we regard to be private and confidential. We will never, ever speak about them publicly. It is disappointing that this matter continues to be debated in public."