City gent Sven in £50m spree

Eriksson has yet to sign a three-year contract because prospective owner Thaksin Shinawatra is waiting for his £90million purchase of the club to go through.

Scroll down to read more:

But former England coach Eriksson is expected to sign a £2m-a-year deal later this week and City hope the takeover will go through tomorrow when their new manager will be officially unveiled.

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin, who needs to buy 75 per cent of the club's shares to take it off the stock market and into private ownership, is about five per cent short of his target.

But with individual shareholders returning paperwork on a daily basis, Thaksin's buy-out is inevitable and that is why City feel confident enough to open the door to their new manager today.

With a pre-season schedule to plan and half a dozen new players to buy, City are aware that time is of the essence as Eriksson moves into the seat vacated at the end of last season by Stuart Pearce.

Eriksson has targeted Middlesbrough's Nigerian striker Ayegbeni Yakubu as his first signing — although Boro chairman Steve Gibson is unwilling to sell — and has West Bromwich defender Curtis Davies on his list of possibles.

Eriksson is not expected to do much more than meet the players today. A week of fitness and conditioning work will be taken by specialist Jon Webb while the Swede settles in and puts his backroom staff in place.

He is expected to complete the recruitment of Roland Andersson, assistant boss of Sweden, who will be his No 2 and former England assistant Tord Grip will be employed in a senior scouting capacity. Eriksson's arrival ends weeks of confusion over City's future and he will have about £50m to spend.

Having sold midfielder Joey Barton, lost defender Sylvain Distin to a free transfer and released the likes of Hatem Trabelsi, DaMarcus Beasley and Trevor Sinclair, City are desperately short of players in most areas.

Yakubu is a striker long admired by Eriksson and is looked after by the Swede's friend, Pini Zahavi. It is possible he could be on board by next week.

Although Yakubu is top of Eriksson's wanted list, Boro manager Gareth Southgate insists his top scorer will not be leaving.

The Nigeria striker, who has scored 35 goals in two seasons at the Riverside, has also been linked with are turn to Portsmouth but Southgate said: "I've spoken to Yakubu very briefly and, although speaking on the phone is not the same as speaking face to face, there's been no indication he's doing anything other than looking forward to the start of pre-season.

"We told him we were giving him a longer break than some players because he was playing with Nigeria.

"He'll be with us to go to Austria next week. Beyond that, I've had no contact from any other club. He's our player and we're looking forward to starting the season with him.

"You'll always have speculation about players and, besides Thierry Henry, Yak has been the highest scorer in the league over the last four seasons. It's understandable that people are going to be linked with him."

Southgate is also hoping to speak to Manchester United's Alan Smith after Boro's £7m bid for him was accepted by the Premiership champions.

He said: "He's on holiday and I haven't had any discussions with him yet."