Sven-Göran Eriksson may yet surprise a few people if, as expected, he returns to club football as manager at Manchester City. Many observers do not expect much of the former England coach, who has been out of football for a year. Apart from the fact that the Swede set few pulses racing during his time in charge of the national side, few England managers have been able to rekindle the spark in club football that took them to international level in the first place.

Eriksson could buck the trend. Financed by the millions of Thaksin Shinawatra, the controversial former prime minister of Thailand, it is reported he may have £50m to spend on new players. With that kind of cash, the likelihood is that Eriksson will succeed, given the fact that when he managed Lazio he won a championship that had long eluded them thanks to the vast sums provided by president Sergio Cragnotti.

Now all depends on Shinawatra’s takeover going ahead. He has 70% of City’s shares but needs 75% for full control, a milestone he should reach by Wednesday when the players report back for training. The takeover, and 59-year-old Eriksson’s appointment, is not cut and dried, however. There are so-far unconfirmed reports that a “British law enforcement agency” has been in touch with Thailand’s antimoney laundering officials to ask what action they wanted on the £150m Shinawatra has deposited in London banks. Thai authorites have already frozen £1.1 billion in his home-based bank accounts.

If Eriksson does sign the three-year deal on offer, he will have much to do if he is to convince the doubters that the City job is not the first faltering step on the slide out of top-flight football experienced by his England predecessors. Since Sir Alf Ramsey led them to World Cup triumph in 1966, only Sir Bobby Robson has enjoyed significant success after returning to domestic football.

The saddest decline was that of Ramsey. After winning the World Cup, it was downhill almost all the way, an appalling commentary on the ingratitude of a football establishment that resented rather than appreciated him. True, he had to a great extent been responsible for the enmity of the hierarchy of the FA. Sweeping away the superfluous selection committee as a condition of his appointment, Ramsey never hid his contempt for the so-called senior international committee that survived. Their mean-minded revenge was to put him on a pension of just £25 a week. After being sacked by England, he stayed out of management until 1976, becoming a director of Birmingham City before being installed during the 1977-78 season as caretaker manager.

Things began well enough, with Birmingham winning four of their ensuing five games. In November 1977, they put him in charge of playing affairs on a very welcome £20,000 a year. Alas, the team slid towards relegation. His old, essential influence over his players, their reciprocal loyalty, had gone. He was an embittered man and he crossed swords with the team’s young star, Trevor Francis, whom he fined on various occasions. Francis insisted he had been wrongly accused of lack of effort, and in due course Ramsey announced that he was leaving St Andrews.

In September 1979, he became technical director of Panathinaikos of Athens, but a year later was dismissed and never managed again. He led a secluded life with his loyal wife in Ipswich, the town where he built so splendid a team out of fragments, and would ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s.

Ramsey was succeeded as England manager by Don Revie, who should never have been given the job. With the day-to-day activity of Leeds United, the club he hauled out of mediocrity into European eminence, his natural depressive tendencies could be kept at bay.

His stewardship of England, which began in 1974, came to a wretched end. Taking the team on tour to South America for three matches in 1977, he slipped away, allegedly to watch a match in Finland; instead, he flew to Dubai to negotiate a £350,000-a-year contract with the United Arab Emirates. He died from motor neurone disease aged 61 in 1989.

Next, the FA turned to Ron Greenwood, who had been in charge of the so-called West Ham United Academy of Arts and Sciences, that gave Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst to England’s 1966 team. He had to be dragged out of retirement at a time when he was disillusioned with the game, no longer the innovator who had ruled at Upton Park. As manager of England, he was unlucky not to take his team into the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, where they did not lose a match. After that tournament, he once more retired, this time for good.

Graham Taylor was a bizarre choice as England manager, given his long-ball tactics at Watford. In February 1996, Taylor returned to Watford as general manager but couldn’t save them from slipping into the Second Division. In May 1997, he resumed as full-time manager but without Elton John’s money and support, it was never the same Watford.

England’s passage to the semi-final of Euro 96 at Wembley cast a flashing light over Terry Venables’ two years in charge of the team. He returned to management at Crystal Palace in 1998, but further success was elusive and he departed the following year. Later, he worked small wonders in saving Middlesbrough from relegation, but failed resoundingly at Leeds United. He also coached Australia.

Glenn Hoddle arrived with high hopes after enjoying success with little Swindon Town and Chelsea, but he was sacked in 1999 after a newspaper interview in which he suggested that disabled people were being punished for sins they had committed in a previous life. He found managerial refuge with Southampton, then Spurs. but results were indifferent, as they were at Wolves, whom he left last year.

One of England’s most gifted players was replaced by another as manager when Kevin Keegan took the reins. He had energised Newcastle and was doing the same at Fulham when the call came. Keegan took the England job on a wave of optimism. It didn’t last long, and he resigned after losing 1-0 to Germany in the last game to be played at the old Wembley. He went on to manage Manchester City without great success for four years before announcing his retirement from the game For Robson, there was life after England. He twice won the Dutch title with PSV Eindhoven, though one player remarked that all he ever learnt from Robson was how to speak better English. Next came Portugal, where Jose Mourinho sat at his feet to learn, both there and later in Barcelona. Robson managed Sporting Lisbon in 1993, being sacked in 1994. He took over Porto, whom he steered to back-to-back titles. With Barcelona in 1997, he won the Spanish Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup. And in five years at Newcastle he twice took them into the Champions League qualifiers before being sacked in 2004. He has battled ill-health, but still took up a role as consultant to Ireland manager Steve Staunton.

Is it really all over? How managers have coped with life after England

Sir Alf Ramsey

England record: 1963-1974 P113 W69 D27 L17

Won the World Cup in 1966 but was sacked when England failed to qualify in 1974. In 1976, Ramsey joined Birmingham City as a director, before taking over as manager. He left after falling out with Trevor Francis, City’s star player. Became technical director of Panathinaikos but was out of a job in less than a year. Never worked in football again

Don Revie

1974-1977 P29 W14 D8 L7

Built Leeds United into one of Europe’s top sides, but struggled as England manager. Soon became an unpopular fi gure, all the more so when he announced that he was quitting to take on the lucrative role as manager of the United Arab Emirates

Ron Greenwood

1977-1982 P55 W33 D12 L10

The former West Ham boss was talked out of retirement to become England manager. He enjoyed some success with the national side, but left after fi ve years and this time he retired for good

Sir Bobby Robson

1982-1990 P95 W47 D30 L18

Replaced after taking England to the World Cup semifi nals in 1990. Robson then won trophies with PSV Eindhoven, Porto and Barcelona, before taking the reins at Newcastle. He took the club from the foot of the Premiership to the Champions League before being sacked in 2004

Graham Taylor

1990-1993 P38 W18 D13 L7

Taylor was sacked after failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. He took over as Wolves boss, but quit after missing out on promotion. Back at Watford, he won promotion to the Premiership, but the Hornets were relegated after one season. Taylor then moved to Aston Villa. They fi nished 16th in 2002-3 and Taylor retired

Terry Venables

1994-1996 P23 W11 D11 L1

Steered England to the Euro 96 semifi nals, before becoming a consultant and then chairman at Portsmouth. When he left in 1998, Pompey were bottom of the First Division. Spells at Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Leeds before becoming Steve McClaren’s assistant

Glenn Hoddle

1996-1999 P28 W17 D6 L5

Reached the second round of the 1998 World Cup, but was sacked after he suggested that disabled people were being punished for sins in a previous life. Returned to club management at Southampton, but quit to take over at Tottenham. Sacked after a dismal start to the 2003-04 season, he then had an indifferent spell at Wolves

Kevin Keegan

1999-2000 P18 W7 D7 L4

Resigned in October 2000, after England lost a World Cup qualifi er to Germany in the last game at the old Wembley. Won promotion to the Premiership with Manchester City, but they struggled and in March 2005 Keegan retired from the game