Agent: Eriksson likely to leave Man City

MANCHESTER, England -- Sven-Goran Eriksson's agent insists the Swede has no intention of quitting as Manchester City manager, although he concedes the former England manager is "unlikely" to be at the club next season.

Eriksson had an uneasy meeting with City owner Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday -- and it is understood the former Thai prime minister is unhappy with how the club have dropped down to ninth place in the Premier League this season.

After a superb start to the season, including a double over bitter rivals Manchester United, City have slumped in recent weeks, picking up just two wins in their last 12 matches, and Eriksson himself blasted his players for being lazy in the 3-2 home defeat by Fulham at the weekend.

Rumours about Eriksson's position as City manager refuse to go away, and his agent, Athole Still said: "There is no way he will quit after the successful job he has done, but he is unlikely to be there next season.

"It's just developments recently. If Dr Shinawatra was going to give his ringing support for Sven we would have heard it over the last couple of days."

Eriksson's assistant Tord Grip has also revealed that he expects them both to leave City at the end of the season.

"We will be here for the two last matches but the owner doesn't think we have done a good enough job", Grip told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

"We believe that we have done well, it's been harder after Christmas but that's how football works. Things always go up and down and the Premier League is like a marathon. It takes time to build a team. Sven will receive new offers soon I'm sure."

Eriksson also received firm backing from Michael Ball, City's captain on Saturday, who said the squad were fully supportive of the former England manager.

Ball said: "Every player is 100% behind him. We like his methods, the way he trains, the way he goes about his tactics. If the club wants to go forward we have got to keep the coaching staff and obviously add a few more players."

Eriksson said the players' attitude was to blame for their 3-2 humiliation by Fulham after they had been cruising at 2-0 ahead.

He said after the match: "We had a lot of defenders injured, so the backline was completely new but we didn't lose to Fulham just because of that. We lost because our attitude in the last 20 minutes to defending throughout went away.

"At the end of the game we had four, five players up the field like strikers and not even walking back, that's not acceptable. Adding to that, we had a new back four so we will have to learn the lesson.

"You have to take blows to the head, like we did on Saturday, to learn so it does not happen again. We have to learn to get behind the ball when we lose it."

City will finish the season in line with Thaksin's target -- being in the top half of the league -- with the aim being to qualify for Europe in a year's time and the Champions League two years down the line. E-mail to a friend