Former Aston Villa manager Ron Atkinson has said that ex-Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson has all the qualities needed to be the next manager of the club.

The Midlands outfit are looking for a new boss after parting company with Tim Sherwood on Sunday, with former Lyon coach Remi Garde among the favourites to take charge at Villa Park.

However Atkinson, who managed Villa from 1991 to 1995, had stated that he is unsure if Garde is the right man to take charge.

"It looks as though it is going to be Remi Garde but for me the obvious candidate, of the people available, would be Nigel Pearson," he told the Express & Star. "He knows the course and distance, he has been well experienced in it, he did a phenomenal job in getting Leicester out of trouble last season.

"He knows the players, he knows who is about and how to get them out of it, because there is a technique to it. At this moment in time, you wonder about a new manager coming in, particularly a foreign manager, who has a good reputation, you just wonder whether his style of play is suited to survival.

"You can't come in and expect to play like the Arsenal. They have got to come in and dig. They have got to fight, compete and scrap and scramble their way to safety if they can."

Pearson is out of work after leaving Leicester in the summer.