Former Leicester City manager Paulo Sousa rejected the opportunity to become the new manager of Nottingham Forest after the departure of Aitor Karanka, according to reports from Portuguese media outlet A Bola via Sport Witness.
The 48-year-old is mostly known for his time at Leicester City and Swansea City between 2009 and 2010, where he won just four out of 12 games in charge at the King Power Stadium.
The Portuguese boss has been out of work since his departure from Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian in October, where he won just 11 out of 33 games in charge of the club, but reports have now surfaced that he was recently approached by Nottingham Forest to become Aitor Karanka's successor, only to turn the opportunity down.
Forest parted company with the Spaniard in the early stages of January, and were linked with Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic as well as former Swansea boss Carlos Carvalhal, before appointing club legend Martin O'Neill as manager.
The 66-year-old lost his first game at the helm of the East Midlands club, falling to a 1-0 home defeat to promotion rivals - the Reds now sit 12th in the Sky Bet Championship table, seven points off the play-off places after just one win in eight games.
The Verdict
It seems as if Forest dodged a bullet with this one.
O'Neill is hardly the most inspiring of appointments, but Sousa's record on paper is far from convincing.
He didn't even win a lot of games in the Chinese league, which should have been enough to stop Forest from wanting to appoint him.