Former England team-mates Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are set to be interviewed for the vacant Everton manager's job as the club move to a new four-strong shortlist.
Telegraph Sport understands that Derby County manager Rooney as well as Lampard are under strong consideration by the Everton owner Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright, the club's chairman and former majority owner who is taking a key role in the recruitment process to replace Rafael Benitez.
Rooney, who began his career at Everton as a teenage prodigy aged 16 and returned for a second spell 13 years later after first leaving in 2004, has a contract until the end of next season at embattled Derby. They are labouring under a 21-point Football League deduction and face potential liquidation in two weeks' time.
Rooney would require some official agreement for him to be formally interviewed by the Everton board - it is not clear whether that would be the current chief executive or the administrators trying to sell the club. He left Everton in 2018 after a second spell as a player there, departing to play Major League Soccer in the United States.
Over recent months, the 36 year-old has been impressive in galvanising Derby into an improbable fightback from what seemed like inevitable relegation from the Championship. He has been manager there for just 12 months.
Lampard, also formerly a Derby manager, has been out of the game since his sacking by Chelsea one year ago. He is understood to be a very serious contender among the Everton board. There are understood to be two further candidates under consideration.
Everton had initially tried to reappoint former manager Roberto Martinez but they could come to no agreement with the Royal Belgian Football Association to share the Spanish coach until the end of the World Cup finals in December.