Sven made a triumphant return to English football at the weekend when his new look Manchester City side outplayed Spurs with some of the weekend’s most attractive football.

Thailand’s Supreme Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and Manchester City chairman, on corruption charges. Shinawatra failed to attend court in Bangkok as the court was to hear the first of a series of cases being brought against the former leader, who was ousted in a military coup last year…

Following yesterday’s imaginatively titled Part One, today Pies profiles the home kits of the 10 Premiership teams who would have their names called at last on the school register.
Manchester City
There is a hint of baseball to Citeh’s new shirt, with its rather fetching white pinstripes. Reebok are out and French brand Le Coq Sportif (currently enjoying a Lazarus-style revival) are in. Last season’s white sleeves are also ditched, and on reflection it is probably a good call. Click here to buy it from Kitbag.

With the news that our bosses have set up a special Man United Pies blog, it’s worth remembering that most Mancunians count themselves as City fans…

Ever heard of Antonio Cassano? He’s like Italy’s answer to Craig Bellamy – cool finisher with a hot head and an overrated opinion of himself who regularly falls out with teammates and managers alike.

Sven just can’t help putting his foot in it. It comes naturally to him, as do negative tactics and poor substitutions. Here he is asking new signing Valeri Bojinov how it feels to have signed for Manchester United! Valeri probably got all excited for a couple of seconds until the howls of the watching media kick in!

Finish drinking your tea. You don’t want to spit it everywhere when you hear some really shocking news. You’ll never guess. Joey Barton has been charged with assault after an alleged training ground bust-up with a former team-mate. *faints*

Sven has beaten Spurs to the signing of Bulgarian international, Martin Petrov, following a £4.7m deal that brings him to Manchester City from Athletico Madrid.

Sven Goran Eriksson is set to bring another new striker to Manchester City. I know that many Pies fans would love us to be able to reveal that the Swede’s dream partnership is Rolando Bianchi and Emile Heskey, but alas Sven’s love affair with clumsy Emile seems to be over. No, this does actually seem to be a pretty shrewd purchase, which leads us to believe Sven had little or nothing to do with it!

Here’s his goal in that match and ‘Arry telling us what a ‘clever footballer’ he is – surely, an oxymoron?

Look at these two jokers. You’d swear it was the same person. Sven really, really loves sitting in the corner of a dugout, doesn’t he? Like some sort of bespectacled Swedish cat.

There are bound to be a few more twists to this year’s transfer season, especially if someone remembers where they put Carlos Tevez’s ownership papers, but new TV money and the arrival of more glory hunting billionaires means there’s been plenty of action.
Here’s what we think are the ten best deals done so far:

They could overlook the corruption allegations and even his dubious human rights record, but this might be taking it a bit too far for Manchester City fans. Here is the former Thai Prime Minister proudly holding his United shirt aloft as Fergie looks on.

Sven is set to take the Manchester City job and is apparently hoping to make Sweden assistant manager Roland Andersson his number two (schoolboy snigger). Rumour has it the duo would be quite happy to walk 500 miles just to be the men to take over at Eastlands.

As expected, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has lodged a formal takeover bid for Manchester City. The bid is valued at £81.6m. The City board said it intended to support the bid from UK Sports Investments, which is controlled by Thaksin and members of his family.

These are uncertain times in the blue half of Manchester. While United claimed the Premiership in cavalier fashion, City finished the season with the lowest number of home goals ever scored and then promptly lost their manager, Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce. The club is still embroiled in a shady takeover led by exiled Thai leader and fugitive on-the-run, Thaksin Shinawatra, and according to City supporters it could get worse.

The Professional Footballers’ Association must be used to stepping in to break up fights involving Joey Barton by now. But this time they have got themselves into a right old tussle over Barton’s proposed transfer from Manchester City to Newcastle United. The deal has reportedly stalled over a reported £300,000 owed to Barton.

A solid performance from our American cousins, featuring goals from Man City’s DaMarcus Beasley and Fulham’s Clint Dempsey. Big Gooch Onyewu, formerly of Newcastle United, also scored, with a well-directed header.

Seville boss Juande Ramos is the new favourite to take charge at Manchester City. The Spaniard is the new frontrunner to take over at Eastlands after Claudio Ranieri was appointed Juventus manager. The 52-year-old is still overseeing Seville’s La Liga title tug-of-war with Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Bad news for Man City fans hoping to see Claudio Ranieri transform their club’s fortunes next season – it’s just been announced that Juventus have appointed the Tinkerman as their new coach. Ranieri resigned as Parma head coach last week and had been strongly linked with the vacant City job.

Neil Warnock has decided to leave Bramall Lane after almost eight years in charge of the Blades. ‘I believe that this is the right time for me to go,’ said Warnock. [BBC Sport] Joey Barton arrested over Dabo training-ground incident, released on bail. [F365] Michel Platini wants even more match officials. The loon. [Guardian Unlimited] [...]

Does the Monday craziness never end? First Paul Jewell keeps WIgan up but then he resigns. Now Man City, who finished four points above the relegation zone, have sacked Stuart Pearce! What does this mean for out-of-work managers like Iain Dowie, Chris Coleman and the mighty Sven? It means their agents will be straight on the phone to Man City, that’s what.

Just before Sam Allardyce makes him a Newcastle player, mouthy Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton has been Blue Moon-lighting in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Arsene Wenger has confirmed Arsenal are set to sign Poland goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski [F365]
Man City to decide fate of Joey Barton [BBC Sport]