From today's edition of The Times:

Stuart Pearce was dismissed as Manchester City manager yesterday as the club cleared the decks in advance of a ┬г92 million takeover by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand. Thaksin, who flew into Manchester for talks yesterday, is preparing to make a formal offer for the [soccer] club within days and has asked the board for help in finding a top-class coach to lead them into a new era... Thaksin and his financial advisers, seymour Pierce, are two weeks into a period of due diligence, inspecting the club's accounts before making his offer formal.