However, his hopes have been dashed amid legal wrangling in his own country which currently see £1bn (€1.3bn) of his investments frozen.

The situation for Thaksin worsened further still last week when his wife, Pojaman was sentenced to three years in prison on a variety of corruption charges, although she has since been released on bail.

Thaksin himself is facing similar charges and it seems his belief that his assets would be released once a new government was elected last November have been dashed.

This has had a major impact at City, who now find there is little money available to new manager, Mark Hughes.

The eight deals previous boss Sven Goran Eriksson did last year, plus the one that saw Brazilian striker Jo join City this summer, were completed on the basis of a small down payment and further instalments at a later date, some of which are now due.

That appears to be one of the reasons why one of Eriksson’s star buys, defender Vedran Corluka, is destined for Tottenham even though Hughes already felt City were too short in numbers and quality to sustain the domestic challenge Thaksin had hoped for.

Only in April Thaksin claimed the Blues would be a Champions League club in another year. Unless further investment in the club comes swiftly, that could be an impossible task.