City wait for their chosen man to become free

The prospective new owners of Manchester City are close to announcing the appointment of a successor to Stuart Pearce but the man in question first has to tell his current club. It is understood the foreign coach has not yet finished his own domestic season and wants to wait until his league is over before breaking the news.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thailand prime minister, and his advisers have taken control of the appointment process along with Keith Harris, the football-finance expert. Thaksin's £130m takeover of the club is regarded as inevitable and even the current City administration is being kept in the dark as to who the manager will be.

The reason for the delay rules out the possibility of City going for a Dutch coach, such as Louis van Gaal or Ronald Koeman, because the domestic season in the Netherlands has already finished. However, the league programmes in Spain, France, Italy and Germany are still not acompleted, which means Gérard Houllier and Claudio Ranieri could be realistic targets. The manager in question has been described as "one of the best available" by sources close to the prospective owners.

It is believed that Thaksin will keep much of the present administration at the club, such as the chief executive Alistair Mackintosh, and it does not seem to have been a particularly difficult selling the City job to the new manager. That is sure to have much to do with the funds that will be at his disposal, which have been estimated at about £50m as the Premiership steps into the era of the new £900m-a-year television deal.

It was the lack of funds that Pearce cited yesterday as the defining factor in his failure to make the club more successful and he pointed out that much more money was put at the disposal of his predecessor, Kevin Keegan, just as much is likely to come the way of his successor. "Losing your job is all part of football management and I knew it would have to happen one day," Pearce said. "I wasn't taken aback, shocked or angered by the board's decision. I am not naïve or stupid. I felt we were going in the correct direction but needed some finance to drive the club forward.

"The previous manager had around £50m to spend and if the club is taken over, the next manager may have £50m to spend, so in that sense I feel as though I have been a caretaker with no money to spend, getting the books balanced whilst keeping the club in the Premiership. But I do not regret taking the job. I feel City are not far away from becoming the top-six side they want to be."