Claudio Ranieri, Louis Van Gaal, Gus Hiddink and Gerrard Houllier have all told Manchester City they are not interested in the manager vacancy at Eastlands.

Sam Allardyce chose Newcastle instead of a move to the City of Manchester Stadium and Joey Barton has tried his utmost to boost his bad-boy image with his antics in an effort to follow Allardyce to Tyneside. So just what is so bad about poor old City? Well, they don't seem capable of lifting themselves above the half-way mark in the Premiership, and for all the fuss and noise they make about getting new big-money owners in, nothing ever seems to happen.

Ex-City player Ray Ranson has just pulled the plug again in his bid to inject much-needed cash into the club and the fans wait with baited breath to see if former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, maintains his interest. The injection of some Thai culture into Eastlands might be the best bet. Particularly if Manchester holds sway and gets that mega casino built next door to the club. Then they could have a gambling den and a super-duper massage parlour next door, too! Plenty to keep the players entertained there too, then!

Talking of players, the new boss, whoever he may turn out to be, will have a big job on. Apart from going down on bended knee in a bid to cajole players to come to Eastlands, he will have to sort out the rift that grew between the Brit boys and the foreign players at City last season. And if that isn't damaging enough, the club appear more than keen to shoot themselves in the foot by gaining a reputation as a selling outfit following the departure of Shaun Wright-Phillips to Chelsea and now, it appears, Barton to Newcastle. Sylvain Distin has also joined Portsmouth on a free, electing the unfashionable south to Eastlands.

All right, so City might have needed the cash. After all they are still allegedly paying off the Bert Trautmann transfer fee, aren't they - along with countless former managers' contracts.

They've got to hope that the Thai bloke or anyone else, please, with bags of cash and a lot of patience comes in to bale out a club that appear to be set for a massive downward spiral if nothing happens soon.