Nottingham Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi has confirmed that Stuart Pearce has agreed to become the club's new manager from next season.

The Championship outfit are expected to unveil the former England Under-21 boss in a press conference this afternoon.

The 51-year-old, who spent 12 years at the City Ground as a player, initially rejected the chance to become Billy Davies's successor due to personal reasons.

However, Pearce has made a U-turn and will take charge of the club from July 1 following an announcement made by Al Hasawi on his official Twitter page.

I am absolutely thrilled to confirm Stuart Pearce will become our manager on 1 July. Welcome home . #nffc

— @FAWAZ_ALHASAWI (@fawaz_alhasawi1) April 3, 2014

Neil Warnock, Malky Mackay and Gianfranco Zola were among the candidates to take over at Forest, who currently reside seventh in the league table, two points adrift of a playoff place.

Gary Brazil is expected to see out the remaining seven games of the campaign with the first team.