How fitting that Manchester City, of all clubs, are playing Liverpool on Sunday. It is just a shame that Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner, and George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, his Liverpool counterparts, will not be in the directors' box together at Anfield, otherwise they could compare notes on how not to run a football club.

While just about everyone with any semblance of knowledge of the game has been horrified by the events that have unfolded at Liverpool over the past six months, Thaksin obviously thinks that he can learn a thing or two from the Americans and has set about recreating the chaos at Anfield 30 miles away at City, the club he bought last summer after being thwarted, ironically, in his attempt to purchase Liverpool.

Gillett and Hicks undermined Rafael Benítez to spectacular effect by holding two meetings with Jürgen Klinsmann, the former Germany coach, last year, but while they stopped short of sacking the Liverpool manager, Thaksin is preparing to go that step farther and wield the axe on the unfathomable basis that Sven-Göran Eriksson is not the man to take City forward.

Never mind that the Swede has achieved Thaksin's target of a top-ten finish this season, has twice beaten Manchester United, the defending champions, and amassed City's record points tally in the 16-year history of the Premier League, the owner has not been happy with some of the team's performances during the second half of the season, or one or two of the signings he sanctioned last summer, so the manager must go.

It is nonsense, of course - Eriksson should have one of the most secure jobs in the top flight and be in the process of formalising his summer transfer strategy, not preparing to collect his P45 - but Thaksin has chosen to ignore the advice of most people at the club and City are on the brink of another summer of upheaval. For Thaksin, read Gillett and Hicks; for Eriksson, read Benítez in November; and for City, read Liverpool.

The League Managers Association (LMA) was sufficiently concerned to release a statement yesterday raising the issue of foreign ownership that, after this latest episode and the Liverpool fiasco, is expected to be addressed by the All Party Parliamentary Football Group (APPFG), which announced plans last week to launch an inquiry into English football and its governance.

“We feel the current situation reflects a growing trend of football club owners having unrealistic expectations and not giving managers sufficient support and time in the role,” the LMA statement read. “Such shorttermism is destabilising to the club, its players and its fans.”

As troubling as Thaksin's decision to sack Eriksson at the end of the season was his refusal to heed the words of those with a proper understanding of football at City and as long as that remains the case, who can say with any confidence that the owner will not react in the same way if the next manager fails to meet his expectations.

Eriksson does not do angry, but he came as close as he has done to blowing his top during the ill-fated meeting in Manchester on Sunday, when Thaksin gave him the bad news. His mood had lightened at a dinner on behalf of the APPFG in London on Monday evening and he was his usual dignified self as he fielded questions from local reporters yesterday, but while he stands to receive another handsome payoff, he has been left bemused by the suddenness of his fall from grace.

Still, he will probably have concluded that he is better off without the hassle. Let the next manager deal with that, whichever unfortunate soul it turns out to be.