Hopes of a new start as Nottingham Forest appoint Mark Warburton

Nottingham Forest have appointed ex-Rangers manager Mark Warburton as their third boss of the season amid rumours that another takeover is in the pipeline.

Warburton left Rangers in February in "somewhat confusing circumstances", reports The Guardian, with the Glaswegian club insisting he had resigned and Warburton claiming he had been sacked.

In 20 months at Ibrox, Warburton guided the Glasgow club back to the Scottish Premiership and won the Scottish Challenge Cup, but Rangers' inability to challenge Celtic in the Premiership is thought to have cost him his job.

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Forest began the season under Philippe Montanier, but the Frenchman was fired in January with Gary Brazil taking over the reins. Brazil has now passed the mantle to Warburton with Forest sitting 19th in the Championship and in danger of relegation to League One.

But Warburton's arrival could herald the start of a new era at the City Ground. "Warburton, who has experience of managing in the Championship with Brentford and is Forest's sixth different manager in a little over four years, is believed to have been the choice of Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Olympiakos who... has held secret talks with [club owner Fawaz] al-Hasawi over a proposed takeover," says the Guardian.

Even before Warburton's appointment was confirmed the Nottingham Post said it would be "another positive step in the right direction" for the club, which has frequently been embroiled in chaos under the Hasawi regime and has seen several proposed takeovers fall through.

Warburton's first game in charge will be a huge local clash against Derby at the weekend. That match "could accurately be described as the most significant East Midlands derby in many years", says the Nottingham Post, with both teams under new management.

Derby this week appointed Gary Rowett after former England boss Steve McClaren was sacked by the club for a second time.

The fact that both men will be taking charge of their clubs for the first time neatly illustrates the mayhem that has affected the once-great Midlands clubs, whose decline has been masked by Leicester's unexpected Premier League triumph.

"It will be the fifth consecutive East Midlands derby with a different manager in charge of both clubs," says the BBC.

The last time both teams had managers who had taken charge of a derby match before was in 2015 when Stuart Pearce and McLaren (during his first stint at Derby) were in position.