Paul Hart is returning to crisis club Nottingham Forest.

The Daily Mail says Hart is returning to Nottingham Forest as technical director as the club's hierarchy cleared the way for a change of direction at the City Ground.

The well-travelled ex-Forest boss will assume a quasi-management role with the club drawing up a shortlist of ambitious, but largely untried, successors to Steve McClaren

Owner Nigel Doughty and chief executive Mark Arthur are conscious that their experiment in appointing former England coach has backfired spectacularly.

And so they have turned to Hart, credited with bringing through a host of young talent that included the likes of Jermaine Jenas, David Prutton and Michael Dawson, as an experienced safe pair of hands to help a younger boss.