Manchester City's fortunes may have improved on the field under the stewardship of Sven-Göran Eriksson but it is failure in another important area that has the Barclays Premier League club seeking to make a “glamour” signing during the close season.

Eriksson and Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner, held a lengthy meeting this week during which the pair decided that action is necessary to arrest an alarming slump in attendance in which average gates have fallen in each of the four full seasons City have played at the new City of Manchester Stadium.

During that period, average league crowds have fallen from 46,834 in 2003-04 to 39,997 last season, a drop of nearly 15 per cent and one that led to City sliding from being the third best-supported club in the country to their present position of sixth.

Even though attendances have improved slightly, to 42,068 for this season, Shinawatra has declared privately that he has been disappointed that his club are drawing well below the ground's 48,000 capacity at a time when, for much of the campaign, they have been in contention for a top-four finish.

The conclusion reached by owner and manager this week is that City must attempt to land a big-name signing this summer in an effort to attract missing supporters. “It's a thought the owner and people around him have had as well as us,” Eriksson said. “We think it might be a good way to fill the stadium. Football has always been like that, if you have a big, big star, people want to see them playing. I don't know if it's going to happen, but there are thoughts about it. It can't be someone at the end of his career. That would be going the wrong way about it.”

Eriksson has spent some £56million since Shinawatra took over the club at the start of the season, the majority of his signings being young players, a conscious decision by the former England head coach to build for the long term. However, Eriksson concedes that his policy will alter slightly this summer as he seeks out a potential “crowd-pleaser”. The obvious, and topical, choice would be that of David Beckham, signed as a football missionary in the United States, although Eriksson was quick to distance his club from a move for the former Manchester United midfield player.

Names such as Michael Owen, the Newcastle United striker, and Thierry Henry, the Arsenal forward now with Barcelona, have been linked with City and would appear to be more realistic targets, even if that might threaten City's existing wage structure. “All the teams I've had in the past, there is always a difference in wages and people accept that,” Eriksson said. “You have to be good enough to live up to the salary and if you do that, everyone is happy.

“It has been our policy to have gone for younger players but one of the things I discussed with the owner this week was if we should take in not an old but older player this summer. If we do that it must be a very big name, a very, very big name who can fill the stadium. We haven't talked about David Beckham and I think it would be very difficult to match his salary.”

This afternoon, Eriksson will aim to take his team a step closer to his employer's target of a top-ten finish when they play away to Bolton Wanderers. City will wait for the results of a fitness test on Benjani Mwaruwari's injured hamstring but Michael Ball and Micah Richards, the defenders, are unavailable through injury. Martin Petrov, the winger, returns from suspension, while Dietmar Hamann, the midfield player, completes a two-match ban.

“I expect a battle,” Eriksson said. “They're very aggressive, they won't let us have time or space to play but that's normal. Maybe we have more technical players than players you go to war with but, physically, we're OK. We have some strong players and we're not afraid.”