LONDON, June 21 - Former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra promised on Thursday to buy players for Manchester City if he succeeded in his takeover bid and said he had recently met former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Thaksin, who was ousted last September, has tabled an 81.6 million pound ($162.6 million) takeover bid for the Premier League club with the backing of its board.

The former telecommuncations tycoon said he wanted to develop City as a club, especially its profile in Asia, and dismissed a misconduct charge laid against him by Thai prosecutors on Thursday as being "politically motivated."

"What I'm going to bring to the club is fresh ideas from outside, equity and capital, so the club can invest more on players and other infrastructure if necessary," Thaksin told Sky Sports News.

"The existing players are very good but we will have to bring more, good players... we need to add two more strikers, two more midfielders and then maybe some."

Although $1.5 billion in Shinawatra family bank accounts were frozen last week by the Thai authorities, he said he had the money to complete the deal as "funds have been allocated long before. This has been prepared for several months".

Thaksin said he hoped to have 75 percent of City's shares next week. His investment vehicle, UK Sports Investments, controls around 56 percent.

As for a coach to replace Stuart Pearce, who was sacked last month, he said delays to his bid meant he had missed out on a chance to hire former Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri, who joined Juventus earlier this month.

The shortlist includes Eriksson, whom Thaksin indicated he had met last week.

"He has a very good reputation and he's very capable... I had my advisors talk to him. I didn't talk to him that long."

THAILAND ISSUES

Asked about going back to Thailand, he said: "Not next week, but I will definitely return. I have my lawyers working on it. I'm ready to go back to fight my case.

"The reason I'm not going back is not because I'm afraid of anything but because I don't want the confrontation between the people who are crying (out) for democracy and the military."

He also said he was confident of passing the Premier League's fit and proper person's test to become a club owner.

Though he planned to make City a bigger club in Asia, and potentially open academies in China, Thailand and the Middle East, Thaksin denied the takeover bid was designed to raise his profile back home for political reasons.

"No, I've already declared that I have retired from politics," he said. "I can assure you I'm not going to bring football to politics or bring politics to football."