Doubts about the future of Thaksin Shinawatra at Manchester City grew last night when it emerged that John Wardle, the former chairman, was required to lend the club £2 million last month so that staff could be paid. Thaksin created more unwanted headlines yesterday when he arrived in London seeking political asylum, having refused to attend the start of a corruption trial in his native Thailand, but his fragile grip on affairs at City appears weaker than ever after the latest revelations surrounding his unstable regime.

Wardle, who preceded Thaksin as chairman, resigned from the board last month in despair at the way that the club was being run, but before doing so, he loaned City £2 million to ensure that staff would be paid. He has since been repaid in full, with all staff having received their wages, but the club’s apparent need to accept his offer of a short-term loan suggests that City’s financial position is even more parlous than recent revelations had suggested.

Thaksin won instant popularity among City’s supporters a year ago when, having bought the club, he immediately sanctioned £40 million-worth of new signings, such as Vedran Corluka, Martin Petrov and Elano, but it has now emerged that, with little of the money paid up front, the outstanding payments on those deals are restricting activity in the transfer market under Mark Hughes, the new manager. The £18 million deal to sign Jô, the Brazil forward, from CSKA Moscow earlier this summer was similarly structured and, in the meantime, Hughes has clashed with Paul Aldridge, the club’s new chief operating officer, over transfer policy.

Hughes and Aldridge are now working together to try to secure at least two signings before the transfer window closes on August 31, but there are serious and growing concerns about the cashflow situation at the club. For the past year, Thaksin has been working on the basis that he will be able to bankroll the club once he gets his hands on £800 million of his assets, which are frozen in Thailand, but, as the former Prime Minister continues his battle against the authorities in Bangkok, his prospects of gaining access to that money appear more remote than ever.

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Thaksin had been due to appear at the Supreme Court in Bangkok yesterday morning to face corruption charges relating to a land deal that was completed before he was ousted as Prime Minister in a coup in 2006. Instead, he flew to London from Beijing, where he attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, claiming that the charges against him were motivated by “efforts to get rid of me from politics” and that his political enemies “don’t care about the rule of law, facts or internationally recognised due processes”.

Thaksin hopes to be granted asylum in Britain, but he is no longer guaranteed the support of the Premier League, which has been monitoring his trials and tribulations with interest. Thaksin passed their much-maligned “fit and proper person” test when he bought the club last summer, but he would lose that status if found guilty of corruption charges, in which case he could be forced to resign as a director, to cease active involvement in the running of the club or even, in the most extreme case, to sell the club.

City also face the threat of legal action from Tottenham Hotspur after pulling out of an £8 million deal that was to result in Corluka, the Croatia defender, moving to White Hart Lane. Tottenham claim that the deal was done on Sunday, having submitted the transfer documents to the Premier League, but City maintain that they were within their rights to terminate the deal after the player’s apparent change of heart.

City have also moved to play down the tensions that arose between Hughes and Aldridge at the weekend, saying that Stephen Ireland’s initial failure to report for a pre-season friendly against AC Milan on Saturday was because of a breakdown in communication rather than being as a consequence of Sunderland’s reported interest in the midfield player.

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