Premiership - Eurosport.yahoo.com's resident football expert Paul Parker believes Sven-Goran Eriksson's arrival at Eastlands is a terrible move for Manchester City and that the Swede has a mountain to climb before redeeming his reputation in England.

As I said on these pages last week, I have a great deal of admiration for foreign managers who ply their trade in this country, or at least those who have brought new ideas to this country and taken the game forward.

One manager I cannot include in that list is Sven-Goran Eriksson. During his tenure in charge of England, if anything he took the game backwards and I can only see his return to the English game ending in tears.

All I can say is, poor Manchester City.

His imminent appointment as Stuart Pearce's replacement at Eastlands is a bad move, and could prove disastrous for a club which has already known its fair share of dark times in recent history.

The problem is twofold: firstly, Eriksson's dire reputation in this country after the England debacle and secondly, the question marks hanging over his very ability to prove everyone wrong.

Eriksson was a failure during his stint in charge of England, even if the results may suggest otherwise. And as such his reputation is so tarnished in this country that the majority of English players remain to be convinced of his talents and will be reluctant to play for him.

Motivating those players already at City will prove difficult - he's hardly the most inspiring character the world of football has ever seen - as will attracting new blood to the City of Manchester Stadium.

He will no doubt turn to his impeccable record as a club manager - he won silverware all over Europe, most significantly a Scudetto with Lazio back in 2000 - and claim he can still compete with the best at a domestic level.

But you live on what you did the day before, not what you achieved seven years ago, and what he has done most recently, with England, was frankly pretty poor. He hasn't worked in club football since 2001 and six years in football can be a lifetime.

Eriksson will be hoping he can bring in top European players instead, as his reputation on the continent may have come through the England episode relatively unscathed. But it will be interesting to see if he still is able to attract those kinds of players after such a long absence from the domestic game.

However with that mentality comes the danger that City will now become an all-foreign club. What they need are six or seven honest professionals who will graft for the cause, steady the ship and create a base from which to work off in years to come.

But I get the feeling Eriksson will scour the European markets for foreign talent, only to come up with a selection of second rate players. What City need like a hole in the head at the moment is another succession of signings of the ilk of Bernardo Corradi, Ousmane Dabo, Dietmar Hamman, DaMarcus Beasley and Georgios Samarras.

For me, Eriksson will have to pull something rather special out of his bag if he is to win over City fans, not to mention football followers in general in this country.

But to my mind, he has not got the temperament to succeed in the English league. His style is far too quiet, laid back and laissez-faire; you never see him coaching a side. In this country, players like to see their managers mucking in and getting involved on the training ground; a hand-on approach if you like.

City fans are some of the most passionate around yet Eriksson rarely gets excited or shows any emotion. He's even been a little lazy over this past year, when he has happily taken his pay for effectively doing nothing. That can only alienate him further from the average fan.

In fact, it seems incredible that new owner Thaksin Shinawatra has backed Eriksson in the first place. There are one of two explanations: either he did not listen to his advisors or he has been misinformed about Sven's suitability for the job. At the end of the day, Thaksin's not a football man, and to be honest I have no idea where he plucked Sven's name from.

But it is not only Eriksson's arrival that must be giving City fans kittens; Thaksin himself should also be a huge concern.

There has been a lot said about Thaksin and his dealings. Apparently he has no funds in this country, and his money in his home country are frozen. He can't return to Thailand for fear of assassination, so where is the cash going to come from? It's a ridiculous situation for City to find themselves in.

I'm sceptical about Thaksin, and I'm sure he has a long way to go before earning City fans' trust.

Let's just hope Manchester City as a club can survive this double whammy. Brace yourselves, it's going to be another season of turmoil in the blue half of Manchester.