The Blues’ Chairman, in an exclusive interview now available to watch on MCFCTV.com, has expressed his delight at the way this season has exceeded his expectations.

“I’m very happy with the first year, it’s more than I expected,” declares Dr Thaksin.

“The plan for the first year was to finish in the top 10, the second year was top six to qualify for Europe and the third year was finish in the top four for the Champions League.

“At the beginning of the season, I planned that we should end up in the top 10. When we were fourth or fifth for a few months I thought, ‘why don’t we go for the UEFA Cup?’

“That’s my dream but because of the way the cup competitions have gone it’s not so easy, we will have to fight hard for the rest of the season to be able to go into the UEFA Cup, but we will try our best. It still looks like we will finish in the top 10, which is as according to the original plan.”

Having met with the Chairman as scheduled earlier this week, Sven-Goran Eriksson adds:

“It was just a meeting and I have many meetings with him. Before he came here at the weekend he hasn’t been here for five weeks I think, for obvious reasons, so when he came back he wanted to see everyone. It was very good and when we talk, we talk football.

“We know the target. He wants to play in Europe, maybe not this coming season, but let’s hope we can do it. But for sure in the year after, and then the big target of course in a couple of years is to try and get into the Champions League.”

The welcome from the City fans has also pleased the Chairman, and he is shoulder-to-shoulder with every one of them as to what this season’s undoubted highlight has been.

“Especially when I came back from Thailand this time recently, I was very touched when so many fans welcomed me back. It was very touching, and I’m so happy that my first year has been really successful on the pitch, with the fans and with the plan for Manchester City’s worldwide recognition.

“I was delighted to beat Manchester United twice because they are a great team. They are on top of the table, so to win both our games against them made me happy and it made the fans very happy as well. City fans were always telling me, ‘forget about Europe, beat United first!’”

Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Thaksin admits to being frustrated at watching City’s recent dip in form from afar, but he is more than happy with the way the man he appointed as the Blues’ manager has gone about his work this season.

“I talked to Sven and he gave me all the analysis. Sometimes there are injuries, sometimes there are individual errors, this happens in football. I was happy after talking with Sven that they had done the analysis, errors by individual players were pointed out and they are improving every day. We’ll be playing better football from now on.

“I was very optimistic when I brought Sven in and when he began to bring in new players, even though he was quite heavy on my pocket! I was always confident that the club would be moving forward, and so far, so good.”

The Chairman has also revealed what City’s approach in the transfer market will be, and he says:

“We need to look at where the weak points are and where we should have new players next season. So far I am very happy with the foundations we have laid down, but we still have to improve a lot more.

“We probably need one each of a striker, midfielder and defender because in the Premier League injuries are unavoidable. If we have too small a squad then we will have the problem at the end of the season, so we have to have enough good players for Sven to play the system that he wants. 

“We’ll look across the globe and start to look for good players, we have already started to discuss our targets.”

To see the interview with Dr Thaksin in full, go to MCFCTV.com now.

"I Am Liam, I Am From Manchester... But I Have Brain Cells"

Liam Fray, 2008

I love him.

From Manchester with love

*is sad*

The PB for Mod pledges: Cloudyshin O'Watra, ESM, MSTB, Squidge, Buff, Noddy the Bolton Blue, Spiderpig, Emigre, The Ghost of Gibbi, Bill, Danny's Stud's, Shimmer.

Why? You're not so keen on him are you?

The guy has done wonders for this club, let our (world class and respected) manager spend a lot of his money and helped put us somewhere near where we want to be.

Or are you just sad i pledged love to someone else?

From Manchester with love

Just like anybody else does.

Keeper of the heretic's fork of doom.

You just said what everybody else was thinking.

Seriously, I was just gonna post exactly that.

Yes, all right.. Christ Almighty! It's like walking down a corridor and answering the door in Nazi Germany!