More Thaksin news / weekend round-up

Thailand's Assets Examination Committee (AEC) will decide today whether to charge Thaksin with 'attaining unusual wealth and concealing assets', The Nation reports.

Two days ago the AEC claimed that Thaksin had moved 'at least Bt50 billion' (£720m) out of the country before last September's coup.

Last Wednesday Thaksin told Swiss newspaper Mittelland Zeitung that he plans to sue a Swiss bank for freezing his accounts and revealing his confidential records. "Good old bank secrecy is no more. Absolute discretion is a thing of the past," Reuters quoted him as saying. The following day Thaksin spokesman Sir Ian Bell (formerly Margaret Thatcher's spin doctor) did some serious backtracking, claiming that Thaksin doesn't have any Swiss bank accounts and was merely confusing Switzerland with Thailand. Which is easily done.

~ Let's hope Thaksin's frozen funds aren't the reason he downgraded his travel arrangements recently. On Sunday The People revealed that Thaksin travelled up to the Blackburn game by train and sat in economy class. Two weeks ago he went to the United game in first class .

~ Thai pop star Lydia has denied she's having an affair with Thaksin (original story here). The 20-year-old says she sees him as a paternal figure and even calls him 'father'.

~ feedthegreek at Mancityfans has found a video of a recent interview Thaksin gave to Al Jazeera.


Doing us proud

Well that was quite a weekend. Eight City players on full international duty and four picked for their under-21s, three goals from City's academy graduates and all three of our keepers in action and achieving clean sheets.

Here are the City players who played for their countries this week (all played 90mins unless stated):

Friday
Hart (England u-21): clean sheet
Johnson (England u-21): unplayed sub
Onuoha (England u-21): scored
Schmeichel (Denmark u-21): clean sheet

Saturday
Corluka (Croatia)
Dunne (RoI)
Gelson Fernandes (Switzerland): sent off
Ireland (RoI): scored
Isakkson (Sweden): clean sheet
Petrov (Bulgaria)
Richards (England): scored

Sunday
Elano (Brazil): sub 78min, scored pen


The last City player to score in a full England international was Trevor Francis during the World Cup in June 1982 (SWP's debut goal in 2004 was in a friendly), while Peter Barnes' goal in the 3-0 win in Bulgaria in June 1979 was the last time a City player who had come through the youth system scored in a full England international.

~ Last season I wrote this profile of academy boss Jim Cassell. You can find a list of players who have come through Cassell's academy at the MCFCStats blog.

~ There's a very funny thread over at RedCafe. One of the posters questions whether Micah Richards passed the '90 minutes' rule for academy kids considering he grew up in Leeds, but then points out that he's never been to England and isn't entirely sure where Leeds is.

~ Stephen Ireland has now withdrawn from the RoI squad following the death of his grandmother.



Coming up on Purelymancity

I'm going to be be concentrating on finance this week. As well looking at how much money Thaksin has spent I'll also be comparing our finances to other clubs.

Two clubs worthy of close scrutiny at the moment are United and Liverpool. On Sunday the News of the World reported that interest on the United's debt will be a staggering £100m this year, while the The Telegraph recently revealed that Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr are looking to saddle the club with a £500m debt.