Football Corner

Manchester City boss Sven Goran Eriksson has said today that he has been given permission by City owner Thaksin Shinawatra to go out and spend some cash on a new striker in the January transfer window.

Although City have got off to a fantastic start to this Premier League season they have in Shinawatra's view and in my view lack that firepower up front. They signed Valeri Bojinov and Rolando Bianchi in the Summer for a combined fee of 14.5 million but unfortunately neither has made an impact largely down to injuries.

He said: "All the fans know we need strikers, so Sven is looking to add some players, not many - just a few." City have scored goals in abundance this season but most of them have come from midfield, in the shape of Elano and Martin Petrov and I think if they were to get a top quality striker in January they can challenge for that elusive top 4.

There have been rumours of Michael Owen coming from Newcastle and Nicolas Anelka coming from Bolton but who else has been attracting attention from Sven. Well Peter Crouch has been frozen out at Liverpool and Sven is supposedly very keen on bringing him to Eastlands.

Jermain Defoe's name has also popped up and I have no doubt he would be interested in a move because at the moment he isn't getting near enough game time to stake a claim for the England team.