MANCHESTER CITY cancelled their weekly press conference on Friday to avoid exacerbating the embarrassment caused by their treatment of Sven-Göran Eriksson, and the club must be relieved that their last two Premier League matches are both away, precluding a full-scale demonstration by supporters at Eastlands.

That Eriksson is to be sacked at the end of his first season in charge has been common knowledge since it was revealed by The Sunday Times three weeks ago. That the fans are opposed to the move has been made obvious ever since, and the hard core travelling to Anfield for this afternoon’s match against Liverpool intend to make their feelings clear.

The decision by City’s owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, to ditch Eriksson and court Luiz Felipe Scolari, who will be available after taking Portugal to the European Championships in June, is unpopular but symptomatic of increasingly demanding times. A new breed of owner, the foreign oligarch, is replacing the old benevolent chairman and wants immediate results for his money.

Eriksson is not alone in his peremptory treatment, nor has he suffered worst. That dubious distinction belongs to Sam Allardyce, who proved his worth over eight years at Bolton, only to be sacked by Newcastle in January after just eight months in charge.

Mind you, Allardyce and Eriksson could both be eclipsed in the sympathy stakes if Chelsea dispense with Avram Grant after he has taken them to the Champions League final in his first season.

Elsewhere, fifth place in the Premier League was not enough to keep Martin Jol in work at Tottenham, Sammy Lee lasted six months after succeeding Allardyce at Bolton, and Chris Hutchings was given 12 games at Wigan. Ridiculously, Alan Curbishley is now deemed to be “under pressure” at West Ham after keeping them up against the odds last season and hauling them into the top 10 this time.

Eriksson can count himself unlucky but will cry all the way to the bank, where he can deposit his second seven-figure pay-off in less than two years. In total, the FA and City will have compensated him by more than £5m, on top of extravagant wages, for what they deemed to be failure. Nice work if you can get it. Shinawatra is being hasty in the rush to pass judgment. Eriksson took over a team going nowhere after the ineffective management of his predecessor, Stuart Pearce, another fans’ favourite. City won three and lost nine of their last 15 Premier League matches last season and needed major surgery during the summer.

Eriksson, backed by £50m of Shinawatra’s money, supervised what at first seemed to be an impressive reconstruction. With Elano (£8m), Vedran Corluka (£8.7m) and Martin Petrov (£4.7m) to the fore, City won their first three matches, one a Manchester derby, and there was pie-in-the-sky talk of challenging for a Champions League place – even after the wheels came off in spectacular fashion in October, with a 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea.

City recovered well from that setback, but hit a wall again in mid-December, after losing 2-0 at home to Spurs in the Carling Cup.

Of the 22 matches played since, they have won only six, and when Eriksson asked for more money to spend on further reinforcements, questions were asked in Shinawatra’s inner circle about the £21m “wasted” on Rolando Bianchi, Valeri Bojinov, Felipe Caicedo and Javier Garrido, and the inability of Petrov, Elano and Geovanni to sustain their form.

Exit Sven stage left, with a suitcase full of “compo”. Talk about déjà vu.

Sven next on hit list? If Sven-Göran Eriksson is shown the door by Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, he will be the ninth Premier League coach to leave his club this season

Steve Bruce (Birmingham, Dec 2001-Nov 2007) moved to Wigan
Sammy Lee (Bolton Wanderers, Apr 2007-Oct 2007) sacked
Jose Mourinho (Chelsea, Jun 2004-Sep 2007) resigned
Billy Davies (Derby County, Jun 2006-Nov 2007) sacked
Lawrie Sanchez (Fulham, Apr 2007-Dec 2007) sacked
Sam Allardyce (Newcastle United, May 2007-Jan 2008) sacked
Martin Jol (Tottenham, Nov 2004-Oct 2007) sacked
Chris Hutchings (Wigan, May 2007-Nov 2007) sacked
Sven-Göran Eriksson (Manchester City, Jul 2007-?) sacked?