Former Nottingham Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi is rivalling Reds legend Roy Keane for the vacant manager's job at Sunderland.
According to the Times, the Frenchman has the support of the Sunderland board and could be in line to make a shock return to English football.
Keane had been touted as the favourite for the position, but Lamouchi is now under serious consideration which would be his first job in England since being sacked by Forest in October 2020.
His departure came just months after he led Forest to their highest league position in more than a decade in 2020.
But he missed out on a play-off position in the Championship in agonising fashion as they capitulated to Stoke in the final game of the season.
Lamouchi, who was a popular figure among Reds supporters, is currently out of work having left the Qatari side Al-Duhail last year.
Reflecting on his departure from Forest in an interview with the Athletic in November last year, Lamouchi said: "Forest have suffered many, many different disappointments.
"There is perhaps a feeling at the club that success ‘is not for us, it is for somebody else’. But it will happen.
"When, I do not know. With who, I do not know. You must never give up. But what I do know is that there was a long time when I was thinking, ‘Why not me?’
"I honestly hoped and felt that this time was coming for us; that we could achieve success together. I believed it."
