BILLY Davies could yet make a shock return to Nottingham Forest, as the club look for a replacement for Alex McLeish.

But the Scot, who has always said he has 'unfinished business' at the City Ground, will face significant competition for the job.

Swindon Town's enigmatic boss Paolo Di Canio is also on Forest's short-list, as the Al Hasawi family look to appoint the fourth manager of their short tenure.

The Italian is believed to be unsettled at the County Ground, with the League One club beset by financial problems, and has refused to confirm he has a long-term future with the Robins.

"I'm not talking about the rest of the season because we don't know what's going on in the next two days," said Di Canio.

Former Scunthorpe and Southampton boss Nigel Adkins is also in the running.

When contacted by the Post last night, Adkins said he could not comment on other jobs, as he is still officially on gardening leave at Southampton.

But the work he did on the south coast, where he guided the Saints from League One into the Premier League before being controversially sacked last month, would make him a popular choice.

Indeed, an online Post survey saw almost 2,000 fans, out of over 3,000 who voted, say they would like to see Adkins as the next Reds manager.

Although it remains unclear whether there would be legal issues with appointing the highly-rated former physio, because of his ongoing wrangle with Southampton.

There would be no such issue with Davies, although the return of the former manager would divide opinion among supporters.

Some would welcome Davies back with open arms, after seeing him steer the club away from relegation before then guiding them to successive top-six finishes, to secure hero status at the City Ground.

But others still remember his public off-the-field fall-outs with the club hierarchy, which ultimately culminated in his departure in the summer of 2011.

And the issue may yet prove to be redundant, with Davies also understood to have been offered the manager's job at Championship rivals Blackpool.

Davies is understood to have held positive talks with Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston on Monday evening.

Former Notts County, Blackburn, Macclesfield and MK Dons manager Paul Ince is understood to have thrown his hat into the ring.

While another former Forest boss, Paul Hart, remains interested in a return.

Roberto Di Matteo, the former Chelsea, West Brom and MK Dons manager could also be sounded out about the role again, having been approached before McLeish was appointed.

AFTER Omar Al Hasawi was replaced as Nottingham Forest chairman in December there was, for a short time, a blank space on the wall in the foyer of the training ground.

The picture that had once hung there, of Omar, Abdulaziz and Fawaz Al Hasawi, on the day they had been unveiled as the new owners of the club, had been taken down.

It returned, a few days later, with a subtle, but significant change.

Omar, the cousin of Fawaz – now the chairman and main shareholder – and Abdulaziz had been erased from the image.

The three men proudly clutching Forest shirts with their names upon them had been reduced to two, when the frame was returned to the same spot.

With hindsight, the Al Hasawi family probably wish they could take an airbrush to Alex McLeish in the same way; to erase his appointment from the history books in the same way as they had the club's short-lived chairman.

That is not, in any way, a reflection on the Scotsman, who conducted himself with dignity throughout the 40-odd days of his remarkable tenure, before deciding it was time for him to walk away.

But it is a reflection of another embarrassing chapter in the tenure of the club's owners, whose next major decision needs to be a vast improvement on the last few they have made.

The decision to sack Sean O'Driscoll on Boxing Day seemed bizarre at the time. Now it looks positively farcical.

A point off the play-off places and with a sense that things were coming together slowly, Forest were hardly a club in crisis.

Now, in the early stages of February, it is hard to argue that they are not.

This weekend, Forest travel to Bristol City – where O'Driscoll has already started to bring a sense of stability to a club that had previously looked doomed to relegation to League One.

And, while he is unlikely to admit it, O'Driscoll would be justified in feeling a slight sense of satisfaction.

At Christmas, after taking the decision to replace O'Driscoll, Forest's owners were driven by a desire to appoint a Premier League manager, a man with experience and, more importantly, a big reputation.

Those requirements led them to McLeish, a man who had steered Birmingham City to promotion and to Wembley and who had enjoyed plenty of success in the high-pressure environment of Glasgow Rangers.

But, as they begin their search for their fourth manager in just over seven months, they may find themselves shopping in a different marketplace. Not by choice, but through circumstance.

Because, while ambitious targets like Nigel Adkins, Roy Keane, Mark Hughes and Roberto Di Matteo will be banded around hopefully, is the Forest job as enticing as it was back in the summer, when O'Driscoll was appointed?

In terms of the club's proud history and the kudos connected with being Forest manager, yes it is.

Otherwise, it almost certainly isn't.

And there are also several key questions that every potential candidate for the role will ask themselves.

Back in the summer, O'Driscoll was not the first choice for the job.

The first man to be offered the chance to pick up where Steve Cotterill had left off was Mick McCarthy.

But then the unemployed former Wolves manager pulled out at the last minute, citing fears over potential interference from the club hierarchy. Now manager of Ipswich, McCarthy may feel that those fears were justified.

And, if Forest are to make a strong appointment; if they are to stop their very own in-house managerial merry-go-round from spinning like a whirlwind, by landing somebody who can take the club forward in the long term, this is the biggest hurdle for them to overcome.

Because, as he hurried himself through the exit, McLeish's carefully worded statement, issued via the League Manager's Association, basically sent out the same message.

"Both parties entered into the relationship in good faith, however, there was a difference in the understanding of the development strategy of the football club," he said.

To fans looking from the outside in, the difficulty might come in understanding what the development strategy of the football club actually is?

Along with the sacking of two managers and the 'mutual' departure of another, Forest have shed themselves of a chief executive, in Mark Arthur, their head of recruitment, in Keith Burt, and club stalwart and favourite Frank Clark, who had held an ambassadorial role.

Whether those decisions were a factor in a January transfer window that ultimately became the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, for McLeish, is hard to say.

It is hard to criticise a club for failing to agree a price for a player, as was the case with Stephen Ward of Wolves and Birmingham winger Chris Burke – who was to return to haunt them last weekend.

But the much publicised collapse of the George Boyd transfer from Peterborough had the whiff about it of being a transfer the manager desperately wanted to get done – and the club hierarchy didn't.

Whether an issue with his eyes was found in the medical or not, it has hardly hampered his career so far.

But the ridicule that moment exposed Forest to may still have ramifications, as they look to persuade potential managerial candidates they will be allowed to make the big decisions without influence from above.

This would be particularly important in the case of Billy Davies, if the club do make an approach to bring him back to the City Ground, given his previously fractious relationship with a hierarchy, led by Nigel Doughty, that could hardly have interfered less. The same would also apply to the fiery Paolo Di Canio – if he were to come in.

That newly edited picture of the Al Hasawi's on the wall of the academy building sits just a few feet down the corridor from the manager's office.

But, whoever the next man is to occupy the hotseat within must be allowed to do his job without feeling the club's owners are perpetually looking over his shoulder.

While you can take an airbrush to the past, if Forest's future is to be more stable, then they need to find a face who can be a more permanent fixture.

FAWAZ Al Hasawi admits he is disappointed with the first seven months of his family's tenure at Nottingham Forest.

But the Reds owner and chairman pledged he is as committed as ever when it comes to turning things around.

"The challenge is bigger than I envisaged when we purchased the club but I will do everything I can to bring success back to the followers of Forest," he said.

"I cannot pretend the last six months or so have been an easy time, either for myself and my family or the club as a whole.

"We have had to make some difficult decisions and have had many issues to resolve.

"I know many of our fans are frustrated. I want them to know I share their frustrations but I remain as committed as ever.

"We have a strong vision and plan for Nottingham Forest and our willingness to succeed remains undimmed by the disappointments we have experienced in the past six months.

"We have another important decision to make in appointing a new manager and ask for supporters to be patient.

"We will return Nottingham Forest to its former glory."

AS long as Nottingham Forest's next manager is called Nigel, I will be a happy man.

Whether it is Nigel Adkins or Nigel Clough, I don't really mind.

But they are the two men I would have right at the top of my shopping list, if I was Fawaz Al Hasawi.

Forget Billy Davies, he is a good manager, but comes with too much baggage. And, while a lot of Forest fans would be glad to see him back, an equal number would not want to see it. Including me.

If they do want somebody with Forest connections, then why not go for Clough?

People are probably fed up of hearing me bang on about what a good job he has done at Derby. But that is only because he has worked wonders on an ever-decreasing budget.

Derby are a force to be reckoned with at home and they have also adopted a style of football that is not too painful on the eye. They play football and, with the squad they have got, they are probably over-achieving.

Equally, Adkins would be a good choice, purely because he has proved, without doubt, that he knows how to make a club successful.

He spent wisely at Southampton, he put together a team that went right from League One, into the Premier League – and looked as though it was going to stabilise in the top flight.

My one fear is that, having been sacked by one over-zealous owner, he might feel like he was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, if he came to the City Ground.

The next decision the club's owners make has to be a good one, because we are rapidly becoming a laughing stock.

And, trust me, I do not say that lightly.

WITNESSES have spoken of their horror after a man was killed by a lorry in Sherwood.

The incident happened in Mansfield Road, near the junction with Winchester Street, just before 2.30pm yesterday.

The man, who police have confirmed was 88, was on foot at the time.

Shoppers and people in the area said they will never forget what they saw.

Ebo Akar, who was working in a newsagents in Mansfield Road, just outside the police cordon, said: "People that have seen that won't sleep tonight. I won't sleep tonight.

"The lorry driver was in shock, crying. He was crying like a child."

He added: "I heard a big bang, at first I thought it could be an accident and then a customer came in and told me."

A BT workman who was a little further down the road at the time, said: "It's the worst accident I've ever seen. There were people screaming up there who saw it."

And a woman who works in Continental Meats, a deli in Mansfield Road, said: "One lady came in, she was very, very upset. She had seen it."

Two lorries, the 87 bus from Arnold and a red car were kept in the cordon area yesterday afternoon.

An onlooker said a woman from the red car was taken to hospital after fainting.

Blue sheeting was placed on the road, which was believed to have covered the body of the accident victim.

Police have not yet released the dead man's name or age, but people in the area described him as "an older man".

One man in the area, who asked not to be named, criticised people for taking pictures of the scene before the man's body was covered up.

"They didn't put a screen up for ages," he said.

There was widespread outrage on social networking site Twitter after one user posted a graphic picture of the scene.

Scores of people last night used the website to express their sorrow for the man, and thoughts for his family.

Jasmin Barlow-Wilkinson, who runs the Homemade Café at a Room Full of Butterflies, in Mansfield Road, wrote on Twitter: "Our thoughts and love go out to the people involved in the tragic accident in Sherwood today close to Homemade, very sad and horrid."

Mansfield Road was closed in both directions between its junctions with Edwards Lane and Haydn Road until 6.15pm.

Buses and other traffic were diverted along Perry Road and Hucknall Road.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact police on 101, quoting incident 429 of February 5, 2013 – or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

TEACHERS going on strike is never a good outcome to a dispute for anyone.

When the National Union of Teachers (NUT) held industrial action last year over term-time changes, 15 city schools had to close while 40 had lessons disrupted.

In spite of the disruption it caused, many parents sided with their children's teachers, believing they had justification for the action.

And for parents like Jane Graham, that remains the same with more action imminent.

The NUT has said it may take strike action before the end of the current term, possibly over a number of days.

Jane, whose son Thomas, five, goes to Fernwood Infant School in Wollaton, believes they would be right to do so.

She said: "While no one really likes teachers going on strike, including the teachers themselves, I can understand that they haven't really got any other option.

"They are campaigning against a move by Nottingham City Council which I believe will be detrimental to the children they teach.

"It is also going to cause widespread disruption, not least because the county council aren't following suit."

The city council voted to make the changes in term times in its schools late last year. It will be implemented in September.

It will see the summer break shortened to five weeks instead of six and a two-week break in October. There will also be a fixed break at the end of the spring term, irrespective of when Easter falls.

The authority says there are several reasons for the changes to terms, including evidence to suggest that the traditional six-week summer holiday leads to children forgetting some of what they've learned.

But parent Lisa Maddison, of Wollaton, who has two children at Fernwood Junior School, does not agree.

She said: "I don't think children forget what they have learned. The move is going to cause some major disruption."

Notts County Council has opted not to follow this model for its schools, apart from having a fixed break in the spring. Some academies in the city have also decided this.

Unions have raised concerns that this will lead to problems for many teachers who work in a city school and have a child in a county school, and vice versa.

Susi Artis, assistant secretary for the Nottingham branch of the NUT, said that the organisation's national action committee was currently looking at the situation after nearly three-quarters of members voted in favour of strike action in a ballot.

She said strike action is possible in the coming weeks and possibly for a number of days.

She said: "We are still waiting on this. It is with our national executive members.

"But it is likely it will be quite soon if we are going to strike."

The union has nearly 500 members in the city.

Other teaching unions, including NASUWT and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers – which have 1,100 and 120 members in Nottingham respectively – are still weighing up their options.

The former has admitted it is unlikely it will strike, however.

Bernie Pardon, Nottingham national executive member, said: "We have consulted our members and our national committee is monitoring the situation. As of yet there is no strike action imminent."

The city council did not want to comment on the latest development. It has previously branded the action unnecessary.

HAVE you got what it takes to be Miss Great Britain Nottingham? Or even to be crowned the overall winner of Miss Great Britain?

If you think you do, it's time to get involved. And there are some exciting changes to the rules that mean more of you can enter.

Auditions for Miss Great Britain Nottingham are being held at Colwick Hall on Saturday February 16, between 11am and 3pm.

"Nottingham is one of our first regional heats," says national director of Miss Great Britain, Kate Solomons.

Changes to the entry requirements this year mean that auditions are now open to women who are married and/or have children.

All entrants must be aged between 18 and 27 by November 1 this year.

Kate, a former Miss Leicester and founder of model agency ModelZed, previously worked closely with the Miss England organisation.

She added: "It's important to evolve and modernise, so I'm shaking up the rules to let more women take part in the pageant.

"They're really informal auditions, so no one need feel nervous. Entrants are welcome to bring their family along.

"My team and I will spend around ten or 15 minutes chatting with each entrant to get to know them and see their personality shine through. A professional photographer will take each girl's photo too.

"There's a £10 booking fee, which includes a copy of the photograph.

"The dress code is smart casual – just arrive wearing whatever you normally would on a Saturday and don't be afraid to reflect your personality."

From the audition, around 25 girls will be selected to take part in the Miss Great Britain Nottingham final, held at Colwick Hall on Sunday April 28 in front of a judging panel of industry experts.

Kate explained: "We'll contact all entrants about a week after the auditions to let them know if they've made it through to the final and we're happy to give feedback."

So, what are Kate and the team looking for in a finalist?

"Firstly, there are no height or physical restrictions.

"We're looking for women with lovely personalities, confidence and the ability to engage with people from all walks of life. They'll be strong, positive role models.

To enter the open auditions at Colwick Hall, simply register online at www.missgreatbritain.co.uk, where you can book a time slot and submit any questions.

MASKED men held up two women with a knife during a betting shop raid.

Three men entered Coral in St Wilfrid's Square, Calverton, at about 7.20pm on Wednesday.

The suspects, wearing dark balaclavas, fled with cash in a small silver car.

One was slim and around 5ft 9in, in grey tracksuit bottoms, black sweatshirt and white trainers. Another wore a dark top and was slightly shorter. The third man was chubby.

Anyone with information should contact Notts Police on 101, quoting incident 712 of February 6, 2013, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.