Aston Villa face a battle to hang onto manager Martin O'Neill.

The Daily Express says O'Neill is the managerial target for a Middle East consortium who are in talks with Nottingham Forest about a multi-million-pound takeover of the struggling Championship club.

The group, based in Dubai, want to lure O'Neill away from Aston Villa to the club where he began his career as a player so he can try to take them back to the Premier League.