Blues Should Heed Mrs Beeton's Advice

With all the heady talk of billionaire takeovers, Sven Goran Eriksson as manager, the return of the prodigal SWP, it is at times difficult to remember that it's Manchester City we're talking about, such has been the club's low expectations over the last few years.

Over the last few weeks the media has been in a frenzy and awash with speculation of who City will appoint as manager and the galacticos that would be signed, seemingly attracted by the much vaunted new investment and big club ambitions.

Personally, I'm still not sure about Frank Shinawatra, but I'll be more than happy to eat humble pie if I'm wrong. However, I was at the club shop over the weekend, and there does seem to be more of a buzz about the place which is always great to see.

Now City fans are well accustomed to disappointment and heartbreak - it's in the blood, but I think before we all get carried away on a wave of media hysteria, it would be as well to remember the legendary advice from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management for cooking Hare Soup written in Victorian times, but still highly relevant today; " First catch your hare ! "

It seems to me that there will be quite a few more stings in the tail before the takeover resolves itself one way or another. Frank's advisers themselves are saying that it could take another three weeks to complete the buy out, and that's without any more revelations from the Thai government about freezing more funds, arrest and extradition.

Similarly, without the new manager in place, it's difficult to see players like Benayoun, SWP, Nolan etc,,etc signing on the dotted line. Apart from the overall uncertainty, there's still the issue of where the transfer funds will come from until Frank has taken the club over. We could, as usual, be waiting near to the transfer deadline before being able to sign players - always a bit risky.

Furthermore, questions were raised by UK MPs yesterday about the worrying trend of foreign billionaires buying into the Premier League as a bit of a fashion accessory. Add to that the FA still needing to confirm Frank as a "fit and proper" person to run the club and you can see that despite all the new found optimism, some of the foundations are still looking a bit shaky.

Some of the concerns would be reduced if, as widely predicted, Sven takes the job in the next few days. I suspect that secretly he is desperately hoping another big club comes in for him just like Juventus did for Ranieri, so he can be spared making a difficult decision - we will see.

One things for sure though, this is all classic City roller-coaster stuff and the reason why we just love being Blues.