Thaksin Shinawatra, the Manchester City chairman, is expected to be arrested when he returns to Thailand tomorrow after a 17-month exile, but, if that news is likely to alarm the club and their supporters, he has moved to assure City that he expects the process to allow him to clear his name and to reclaim £800 million of frozen assets, some of which will go to Sven-Göran Eriksson’s transfer kitty.

Thaksin, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, is due on a flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok this evening for his first visit to his homeland since he was overthrown from government in a bloodless coup in September 2006. He has told confidants that he expects to be arrested on corruption charges relating to his time in power, but that he believes that he will be bailed immediately, allowing him to start the negotiation process with the ruling People’s Power Party, which is regarded in some quarters as a proxy for Thaksin while he is barred from political office.

With fears in Bangkok that his return might spark riots, such are the conflicting emotions he arouses in his countrymen, sources in Thailand have suggested that the process might not be quite so straightforward as Thaksin has been led to believe. But the 58-year-old has assured his colleagues in Manchester that his return to Bangkok will bring benefits to City, who were unable to invest as much money as Eriksson hoped in the January transfer window due to the fact that Thaksin’s assets were frozen. The chairman and owner has assured the club that some of those funds will be given to Eriksson to strengthen his squad in the summer.

Thaksin’s takeover in the summer has transformed City on and off the pitch, but there has been a perception at the City of Manchester Stadium that his focus on the club has lessened somewhat in recent months as he has been in Hong Kong and Dubai, trying to negotiate his return to Thailand. A regular and very visible figure in Manchester in the opening months of the season, he has not attended a City match since the 3-1 home defeat by Arsenal on February 2, prompting some speculation that he might look to sell the club in the medium term.

With his personal and political ambitions taking up much of his time, Thaksin is considering the appointment of an executive chairman to be based in Manchester, but so far the recruitment process has been difficult. Ivan Gazidis, the highly regarded deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer and a childhood City fan, was one target, but he turned the job down. Overtures made to Paul Smith, the former business affairs director of Chelsea, and Jim Hone, the former Fulham chief executive, are also believed to have been unsuccessful.

Eriksson, meanwhile, is eager for clarification over his summer transfer budget as he looks to buy high-class reinforcements such as Peter Crouch, the Liverpool and England forward, and Luka Modric, the Croatia and Dynamo Zagreb midfield player. European qualification is likely to be essential to their hopes of attracting that calibre of player, but so is some kind of stability at boardroom level. Unlikely as it may sound, the expected arrest of their owner and chairman might be the first step towards that goal.