Henan coach Pereira favorite to take over at La Liga side Levante

MADRID - Henan Songshan Longmen coach Javi Pereira is the favorite to be named as the successor to Paco Lopez at Spanish La Liga club Levante.

The Spanish press are unanimous in naming Pereira, who has a year remaining on his current deal with the Chinese club, as the favored candidate of Levante president Quique Catalan to take over the reigns of the club that sacked Lopez on Monday after failing to win any of their first eight games this season as well as none of the last eight of last season.

The Valencia based 'Superdeporte' newspaper reports that "on Tuesday the two parties exchanged documents and the agreement is definitive with just a few small details to be resolved."

The paper, which has close links to the club, reports Pereira is the club's first choice and that so far Catalan has not been in contact with anyone else, adding that they are willing to wait several days to get their man thanks to the current international break.

55-year-old Pereira has previously worked at the Valencia based club as the assistant to Juan Ignacio Martinez, also working as an assistant at clubs such as Fulham, Watford, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Chongqing Lifan, where he was the assistant to Jordi Cruyff.

Levante is not the only Spanish club currently looking for a new coach with bottom of the table Getafe also looking to find a replacement for Michel Gonzalez, who was also sacked on Monday after taking just one point from a possible 24.