Claudio Ranieri was in typically evasive mood when asked about his future last night after being spotted in London, but the former Chelsea coach is understood to be moving closer to a return to the Barclays Premiership with Manchester City, having scheduled talks on his future with his employers at Parma on Friday.

In the face of strong suspicion, Ranieri insisted last night that his visit to London was a personal matter, rather than anything to do with the managerial vacancy at City, but he told The Times that he is due to discuss his future with Tommaso Ghirardi, the Parma president, on Friday. “Right now I’m thinking about everything,” he said. “I’m relaxed and I will speak to the [Parma] owner on Friday. Next week I will choose my future. Until then there is nothing more to say.”

Previously, Ranieri’s comments to Parma’s website, saying that he “would like to remain” with the Italian club, had been interpreted in some quarters as an indication that he was ready to reject the advances of City and their prospective new owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thai-land. However, discussions through a third party are already believed to have taken place – via representatives of Thaksin, rather than City’s existing board – with the likelihood that the 54-year-old will resign from his position at Parma in the next seven days with a view to accepting the City job in succession to Stuart Pearce.

Thaksin and his financial advisers, Seymour Pierce, have been undertaking the due diligence process for the past 30 days, inspecting City’s accounts with a view to proceeding with a proposed £92.5 million offer for the club. The due diligence process has taken a little longer than was initially expected, but City are firmly expected to accept that bid, with John Wardle, the chairman, and David Makin, his business partner, confident that Thaksin is the right man to buy their 30 per cent stake.

Ghirardi outlined his desire to keep Ranieri at Parma yesterday but appeared to acknowledge that this may prove easier said than done, with the Italian widely perceived to have pulled one minor miracle in helping the club to avoid relegation from Serie A. “We want Ranieri to stay,” Ghirardi said. “He is tempted by the idea of going to England but we will try to keep him.”