Sven-Göran Eriksson acknowledged for the first time yesterday that, barring a last-minute reprieve from Thaksin Shinawatra, tomorrow's match away to Middlesbrough will be his last as manager of Manchester City. “It is a possibility, of course,” the former England head coach said. “It's not a secret to anyone in the world of football, but we will see. We will probably know next week.”

Thaksin, the City chairman, plans to replace Eriksson with Luiz Felipe Scolari, having offered the Portugal coach a package worth £3.2million a year, but Scolari played down such talk yesterday. “I have no agreement with that club,” he said. “Portugal offers me everything I need.”

Eriksson believes that Thaksin is wrong if he feels that City have underachieved this season. “It's not realistic to think we should qualify for the Champions League, because we don't have a squad like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United,” he said. “We're good, but not great.”