Aston Villa are to step up their efforts to make Norwich boss Paul Lambert their new manager in the next 24 hours
Villa are finally set to make an official approach for Lambert, who guided the Canaries to two successive promotions and established them in the Barclays Premier League last season.
But it is understood Norwich will not welcome such an approach and will fight hard to keep the Scot, who is operating on a rolling contract at Carrow Road.
It is believed Lambert is content at Norwich and he must decide whether Villa are a big enough attraction to persuade him to leave.
They only avoided relegation from the Barclays Premier League by two points and had significantly to reduce their wage bill after debts of more than £50million
Villa owner Randy Lerner is hoping it will be a case of third time lucky in terms of replacing Alex McLeish. He held talks with former Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but he opted to stay at Molde, while Roberto Martinez looks set to remain at Wigan.
