Sky Bet Championship outfit Norwich City are hoping to trump their divisional rivals Aston Villa by securing a deal to sign Nottingham Forest midfielder Henri Lansbury, according to The Sun.

Lansbury has been the subject of vast interest since the transfer window opened just over a fortnight ago and a move to Villa Park, for a fee of around £3.5 million, had looked to be pretty close to completion, with a pending takeover at the City Ground seemingly holding up the transfer.

With Forest’s takeover by an American consortium now dead in the water day-to-day control of the club falls back in the lap of the controversial Fawaz Al Hasawi, and his immediate priority could be to offload Lansbury.

The Reds’ skipper is out of contract in the summer and the club will be keen not to lose such an influential figure for free in a few months time.

The 26-year-old had a loan spell at the Canaries back during the 2010/11 campaign, scoring four goals in 26 appearances and adhering himself to the City supporters in the process.

Alex Neil’s men have lost their way in the Championship of late and the Canaries currently sit eight points shy of the play-off places, with Neil looking for an upturn in fortunes over the second half of the campaign to try and gatecrash the top six.

Norwich City fans, would you welcome Lansbury back to Carrow Road? Is he of the required quality to improve the current squad? Let us know in the comments below!!!