BANGKOK (Reuters) - Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson will travel to Bangkok this week to complete the signing of Thai international Suree Sukha, the country's soccer federation said on Monday.

Suree, who was initially denied a work permit by Britain's Home Office, should agree terms with the club on Friday, said Ong-Arj Kosinkar, the federation's general secretary.

"Sven will be here on the 16th," Ong-Arj told Reuters. "He is interested in three Thai players but he will sign Suree for sure."

If the deal goes through, the 25-year-old attacking fullback, who earns just $300 a week in the domestic league, will become the first Thai to sign for a top-flight European club.

Along with fellow Thais Kiatprawut Saiwaeo and Teerasil Dangda, Suree was invited for trials at City by ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who bought the club in July for 81 million pounds while living in exile in London.

On Friday, the Manchester Evening News said City would this week sign one of the three players, who would immediately be sent out on loan.

Thaksin's critics have dismissed the City takeover and the club's interest in Thai players as publicity stunts aimed at helping the billionaire tycoon return to politics after his ouster in a coup last year.

This will be the REAL effect of foreign investors in the EPL whether the UK likes it or not.  The popular saying, you don't get something for nothing will be fully realised once these investors are fully settled and as most of us know of foreign investors, they will tend to put their own people in.  It makes sense too!  If you're giving the EPL billions in money, then they'll come a time when {OBVIOUSLY} Russian, American, Thai players and others will be given more opportunity and there's nothing Sepp Blatter will be able to do about it, because they will simply take their business elsewhere when there's too much trouble.

Did anyone realise that Portsmouth could've been 3rd this weekend which means Chelsea could've been 5th if Portsmouth had beaten Man City?  The EPL is getting interesting...

anybody see cahills overhead kick against the chelski scum?

i hate chelsea and i was overjoyed by that goal.

also everton is doing well in the UEFA cup, i hope we win it.

lately arteta has taken his game to a new level but cahill is still the man.

good win for the everton supporters. 7-1. yikes! cahill with a brace ;) 

I wasnt able to watch the match since i was busy watching Manchester's match

against Bolton..

But everytime i put the channel that broadcasted the match i saw a goal..

Pretty exciting

Congrats for the Everton Fans....

Tttenham and West ham tied 1-1 in another great game...i heard.

This week truly had some big games under it's sleeve

lmao, what happened to blackburn??? they *** badly lol..

yakubu looks to be one the in-form forwards in the epl. everton will miss him when the african cup of nations is on.

yeah a couple of the guys are actually scoring goals this season...

watch this though, what do you guys think - looks ligitimate if certain things are put in place

QPR now world's richest club at £22bn
tribalfootball.com - December 21, 2007

English Championship strugglers QPR are now the world's RICHEST club to the tune of 22 BILLION!

Lakshmi Mittal - the fifth most minted man on the planet - has bought a 20 per cent stakeholding in the R's this week.

And with the Rangers board already boasting F1 tycoons Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, it means the Championship's bottom club have a fortune of more than £22 BILLION - even bigger than Real Madrid.

Indian steel magnate Mittal topped last year's Sunday Times Rich List with a near £20bn fortune - almost double that of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

F1 supremo Ecclestone is worth £2.5bn, while Renault chief Briatore has a cool £60m.

The three wealthy directors have pledged to splash the cash to turn Rangers into the game's next big force.

the source is iffy but the facts look alrite. but ecclestone 2.5b...yikes!!!

if all true then qpr will be a force no doubt. but considerin there are 3 rich peepz there wouldnt there be a fight for the most power ova the club

newcastle have "King Kev" now, will he do anythin?

I think he may change newcastle's fortune of late...

tottenham signed hutton

To demonstrate an earlier discussion on why Wayne Rooney was allowed to play for so long with England without scoring while other countries would've axed him from the squad, take a look at this posting:

Kuyt made his debut under Van Basten in Sept. 2004 and won 35 caps during the 43 matches with him as coach.

"But the striker has scored only seven goals for Liverpool this season and has not found the net in his last 11 games....." So, Marco Van Basten dropped him from Holland's team.  Was it fair to others waiting?

im a livo supporter and i wouldnt have kuyt in the dutch national side. soo many good forwards to choose from, huntelaar, babel, ruud etc.

but in rooney's situation you gotta have him in the side. he is very influential and is a game-breaker.

on another story, becks has been left out of don fabz' side for their friendly comin up. im suprised. what u all think?

i'm not surprised, capello doesn't really like beckam.  He dropped him at madrid, even when it was visible that Madrid's problems were not his fault.  He doesn't like beckam's style plus beckam isn't playing and not even at a reputable league for European national team selectors.

Well i think England's hands are tied as far as Rooney is concerned.  Sadly, he's among the best they have, scoring or not.  That's the difference between him and kuyt's position.  Not that i think kuyt is as good as Rooney by the way, i never rated Dirk Kuyt so highly especially witnessing all the big clubs not bothering to try to sign him too much.

i'm not surprised, capello doesn't really like beckam.  He dropped him at madrid, even when it was visible that Madrid's problems were not his fault.  He doesn't like beckam's style plus beckam isn't playing and not even at a reputable league for European national team selectors.

Well i think England's hands are tied as far as Rooney is concerned.  Sadly, he's among the best they have, scoring or not.  That's the difference between him and kuyt's position.  Not that i think kuyt is as good as Rooney by the way, i never rated Dirk Kuyt so highly especially witnessing all the big clubs not bothering to try to sign him too much.  He is bench material at most big clubs.

Gregory:

i'm not surprised, capello doesn't really like beckam.  He dropped him at madrid, even when it was visible that Madrid's problems were not his fault.  He doesn't like beckam's style plus beckam isn't playing and not even at a reputable league for European national team selectors.

Well i think England's hands are tied as far as Rooney is concerned.  Sadly, he's among the best they have, scoring or not.  That's the difference between him and kuyt's position.  Not that i think kuyt is as good as Rooney by the way, i never rated Dirk Kuyt so highly especially witnessing all the big clubs not bothering to try to sign him too much.

- he was dropped from the madrid side cause he signed for the yanks. he thought then there is no point playing him. resorted to him when we were in trouble and he truly delivered.

- not only rooney. there is crouch, owen, defoe, young, abalonghor but they aint in the same class as the dutch side.