HAVING conducted a frustrating and fruitless search for a "world-class coach" over the past 11 weeks, the Everton chairman, Peter Johnson, will this weekend try to put together a deal that would reunite Howard Kendall with the former Everton centre-forward and Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray.

Kendall, who has brought Everton more success than any manager in their history and is at present in charge at First Division Sheffield United, is poised to make another, doubtless final, return to Goodison Park. For the third time in 16 years he will be asked to rouse one of English football's dormant giants from its slumbers.

But while Johnson has decided that Kendall is the man best equipped to oversee a revival in Everton's fortunes, he may yet face opposition from within his boardroom unless he can convince Gray to forge a managerial partnership with his old boss.

Gray is still revered on the blue half of Merseyside for his memorable contribution to Everton's sustained success in the mid-1980s.

Although he is now a key member of the Sky Sports team, Gray said recently that he would seriously consider abandoning his television career if he were offered the chance to manage Everton.

Gray would clearly like the top job at Goodison but it is not certain that he would be content to work under Kendall, even though the two men are close friends.

It is a dilemma that Johnson will seek to address over the next 48 hours and one which will decide whether or not one of the most tawdry chapters in Everton's recent past will carry an optimistic footnote.

If Gray were to decline an invitation to become Everton's assistant manager, Johnson might ask Kendall either to become director of football or general manager, thereby allowing the former Scotland striker to run first-team affairs.

"It is starting to crystallise", said Johnson yesterday. "I feel we are getting reasonably close to an appointment".

Kendall first became Everton manager in May 1981 and after initially struggling to transform a club he struck gold in the mid-Eighties winning League Championships in 1985 and 1987, the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1985 and the FA Cup in 1984.

Kendall resigned in 1987 to take charge of the Spanish club Athletic Bilbao before returning to England in 1989 to manage Manchester City before picking up the reins again at Everton.