Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is ready to turn to former Tottenham Hotspur head coach Mauricio Pochettino to replace Zinedine Zidane at the Bernabeu and help solve the club's recent woes.
Madrid fell to a third defeat in their last five matches on Tuesday evening, going down 2-0 to Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.
The defeat in Ukraine has left Madrid sat in third-place in Group B, meaning their prospects of qualifying for the last-16 of the Champions League are hanging in the balance ahead of next week's final group match against current table-toppers Borussia Monchengladbach.
However, according to a report by Spanish media outlet El Mundo, Zidane may not be in charge to oversee Madrid's crunch clash with the Bundesliga outfit next Wednesday, with it being reported that club chief Perez is exploring the idea of potentially relieving Zidane of his duties in the Spanish capital.
El Mundo reports that Perez, following Tuesday evening's defeat to Donetsk, is considering pulling the trigger on Zidane's second spell in charge of the 13-time European Cup winners, as the club faces the prospect of failing to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time since 1996/97 when they were not involved in the tournament in any capacity.
With the club struggling for form both in La Liga, which sees them currently positioned in 4th, seven points off the top after 10 games, and in the Champions League, Madrid are considering whether or not they will turn to Pochettino to succeed Zidane.
The Argentine, who has worked in Spain before, managing Espanyol between 2009 and 2012, has been out-of-work since leaving Spurs more than a year ago.
However, Pochettino is not the only name in the frame to succeed Zidane if Madrid make the decision to make a change in the dugout, with club legend Raul, who is the current boss of Real Madrid's reserve team in Segunda Division B, also under consideration.
Though Pochettino and Raul are being touted for the job, Zidane, following Tuesday's surprise defeat to Shakhtar, who won the reverse fixture 3-2 at the Bernabeu back in October, made it clear that he has no intentions of resigning
He said: "I am not going to resign. We had a great first half, but we couldn't score.
"Now there's one game left and we have to win it."
Should Madrid call time on Zidane's second tenure in charge, Pochettino would no doubt be eager to take on the challenge should it be offered to him.
Last month, Pochettino admitted that he was ready to seal a return to the dugout, as speculation mounted about him replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
Though Zidane remains Madrid's boss for now, Pochettino has been installed as the favourite to take over the reigns in the Spanish capital, with Betfair backing him at evens for the job.
Former Juventus chief Massimiliano Allegri is also in the running, being priced at 3/1. The list also consists of former Chelsea chief Maurizio Sarri and current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
