Former Nottingham Forest star Stan Collymore has urged the club to replace sacked manager Billy Davies with Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill and assistant Roy Keane.

O’Neill and Keane both had successful playing careers at Forest, with O’Neill winning the League title, League Cup and European Cup under Brian Clough during a decade at the club while Keane reached two Cup finals before being sold to Manchester United in 1993.

When the pair were unveiled as the Irish management team in November last year, O'Neill said there was no clause in his two-year contract that would allow him to leave for another job.

Despite this, Collymore made an appeal for the Irishmen to be considered while presenting his Talksport radio show on Monday night: “He’s got money, the owner [Fawaz Al Hasawi].

"I would pay whatever remuneration to the FAI and get Roy Keane working under Martin O’Neill at Nottingham Forest.

“It [managing Ireland] is a part-time job and they didn’t think they were going to get a gig in the short-term.

“The Forest job has come up, both would get into a Forest all-time XI. Both want to manage day-to-day with players.

“I couldn’t give a monkey’s what Irish fans say in terms of ‘they love the job, steer clear from here’."

Neil Warnock has confirmed that he was offered the chance to replace Davies on Monday but turned the opportunity down.

“I couldn’t give a monkey’s what Irish fans say" - Stan Coillymore

When it was suggested to Collymore that former Forest captain and England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce would be a more realistic choice than the Irish duo, Collymore said he would welcome all three men as part of a new Forest set-up.

“This would be the blueprint: Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane as manager and assistant manager, Stuart Pearce as technical director."

Pearce has hinted he could be interested in becoming manager at the City Ground, labelling the job an "outstanding" opportunity for the right person.

"I have spent 10 years training as a manager and that is what I am," Pearce told Talksport

"There are some really good jobs out there at times that come up every now and again and Nottingham Forest outside the Premier League is an outstanding job for whatever manager wants it."