You Must Be Kidding.

Once upon a time, there was underachieving Swedish manager at the helm of England. After a series of woeful performances at the World Cup in Germany, he was rightfully sacked. He landed on his feet nearly a year later at a quaint little club called "Manchester City." The old Swede did quite well there. Bought well (Elano, Geovanni, Martin Petrov), kept his best players (Micah Richards) and, occasionally, bought poorly (Bianchi). He won games and, for a moment, the public thought he might finish in a UEFA Cup spot or, perhaps if his players wished hard enough, in a Champions League spot. Alas, it was not to be. His team's form plummeted in the second half of the season.

Still, the old Swede's team did the double over Manchester U (their bitter and hated rivals) for the first time since 1970. And they did finish 9th in the league--their highest league finish since 2002-03. And they DID earn a UEFA Cup spot, albeit through their high finish in the Fair Play Table. And yet, bizarrely, the club's evil Kim Jong Il-like owner decided that he would fire the lonely Swede despite his success.

This story, kids, is all too true. In fact, it's just a long contrived way of saying that Thaksin Shinawatra is lining up Avram Grant as a replacement for Eriksson. What the fuck would Eriksson have had to do to keep his job? In what reasonable world does a man who takes a club from 14th to 9th (winning 13 more points along the way) and does the double over the league champions lose his job? It's like Shinawatra doesn't realize that it's MAN CITY--they're not even a real club.

Avram's a real mediocre choice (especially with the wealth of talent floating around this summer--doesn't City seem like they could be a pretty solid place for Big Sam to land?) but not a horrible one. I hope they do hire Avram and Chelsea hire Eriksson. It will be awesomely ironic when both are fired for not living up to standards again next summer.