Oh Sven, what have you done now...

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands."
— Douglas Adams

That famous quote sprang to mind this morning when the news of the latest twist in the utterly predictable, rapid and ultimately sad demise of Notts County unravelled - just substitute the word duck for sham and you get the gist.

When Sven-Goran Eriksson cheerily rumbled into town boldly promising world class acquisitions and Premier League football within five years, you feared only those with a feint grasp of reality would buy into the pipedream.

Strangely, Luis Figo and Pavel Nedved, unlike Sol 'I'd quite like to play for Manchester United now - no shit Sherlock' Campbell briefly, failed to be tempted by the prospect of sharing a dressing room with hit and run killer Lee Hughes, or testing whether or not their ageing limbs could tame Underhill's famous slope.

While most were questioning the feasibility of taking a League Two side, albeit one with history and pedigree, to the Promised Land in double quick time, the teaser everyone should've been concerning themselves with was: what's in it for Svennis?

In this instance it was an enormous pay cheque for whispering sweet nothings in the ears of gullible County fans, and biting his tongue should he find the sausage rolls in the directors box at Morecambe not quite to the liking of a palate that has been refined through years of dining out on a reputation that should have expired around the time he was caught dicking around with Faria Alam.

With the mysterious Munto finance - surely the alarm bells should have started ringing far sooner with a name like that - putting the club up for sale, it's now up to Eriksson and the equally annoying Peter Trembling, the club's executive chairman, to front a takeover.

The Daily Mail also report that a consortium of three Pakistan businessmen are interested in a club that had seemed to have the healthiest of futures when sold to the Qadbak group last summer. Indeed, it was Qadbak who brought in £2million-a-year Eriksson to plot a five-year path to the Premier League.

Since then, Qadbak’s chronic lack of finances has slowly come to light, and arrived at a head last week when it was revealed that Eriksson might be walking out of Meadow Lane as the majority of his promised dosh — the part paid by Qadbak — had not been honoured.

What happens next is probably not even worth considering if you are a County supporter, or that poor sod Hans Backe, who was convinced by Eriksson to accept the managerial gig following the sacking of Ian McParland instead of becoming Sweden's national coach.

The likelihood of Eriksson, however, being around the Nottingham area post Christmas must be regarded as exceptionally unlikely, particularly with the possibility of another massive pay cheque heading his way were he to accept the overtures emanating from North Korea.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when crackpot Despot Kim Jong Il, the man who fires missiles into the Pacific like they were confetti, summons Sven to ask whether a first round World Cup exit could in any way, shape or form be linked to a night of high jinx with the England WAGs.