Vitor Pereira lifted two league titles at Porto and developed stars like Falcao and Hulk... but has since had stints in Saudi Arabia and China. So is Andre Villas-Boas' former assistant the left-field choice to galvanise Everton's miserable season?

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The hashtag #27years is forming a part of social media protests by Everton fans against the club's deeply unpopular ownership.

That's how long it is since the Toffees won a piece of silverware, beating Manchester United to win the FA Cup at Wembley in 1995.

You imagine it could be a few more years yet but if their search for a new manager to replace Rafael Benitez is based on a trophy-winning track record then they could do worse than Vitor Pereira.

Vitor Pereira, whose last job was at Fenerbahce, is a strong contender for the Everton job

The Portuguese coach, 53, seen here after Shanghai SiPG won the Chinese Super League title in 2019, has also won trophies in Greece and Portugal

The Portuguese coach, 53, has won league championships in his home country, Greece and China during a fairly nomadic career for a reasonably young coach.

As Sportsmail reported on Sunday, Pereira is emerging as a serious contender for the Goodison Park vacancy having impressed during his interview with the club's hierarchy.

The club's majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri is searching for a 'progressive' and 'forward-thinking' manager who can not only navigate Everton out of their relegation battle but lead them with vision and purpose for years to come.

And it may well prove to be third time lucky for Pereira who was interviewed by Everton prior to Robert Martinez's appointment in 2013 and again before Carlo Ancelotti arrived in 2019.

Farhad Moshiri is eager to make a 'forward-thinking' appointment to replace Rafael Benitez

Pereira was interviewed for the Everton job in 2013 and 2019 but didn't get the role

Pereira was also a contender for the Arsenal job following the dismissal of Unai Emery, holding talks with the Gunners, and also on Chelsea's shortlist before they opted for club legend Frank Lampard.

At that time, the £25million release clause on his contract at Chinese club Shanghai SiPG was too prohibitive for even Roman Abramovich but with Pereira currently out of work, there would be no such issues for Everton.

Pereira was assistant manager to Andre Villas-Boas at Porto in 2010-11 when they won a league, cup and Europa League treble

Despite serving as the assistant to Andre Villas-Boas, later Chelsea and Tottenham manager, at Porto in 2010-11, Pereira is relatively unknown in English football.

Everton fans suspect the guiding hand of Kia Joorabchian in Moshiri's interest in him and the 'superagent' isn't exactly flavour of the month.

But Pereira certainly has his merits - a proven track record of winning trophy and also in developing players of the calibre of Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez, Radamel Falcao, Nicolas Otamendi and Hulk.

In his last posting at Turkish club Fenerbahce, he worked with the former Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil, who was initially impressed by his man management skills before things turned sour.

Ozil threw a bib at Pereira when left on the bench for a match against Kasimpasa having been taken off in one game too many prior to that.

It's fair to say Ozil probably wasn't too disappointed when the coach was sacked just before Christmas last year following a 2-2 draw with Besiktas that left Fenerbahce fifth in the table, 14 points off the top.

But that failure has been a rare blip for Pereira, who ended his amateur playing career at the age of 28 and started coaching at a junior standard.

Pereira with the Portuguese league trophy after Porto's championship success in 2012-13

Shanghai SiPG's Chinese Super League triumph in 2019 broke the dominance of Guangzhou

In the summer of 2010, he left his position at second division Santa Clara to become assistant manager to Villas-Boas at Porto.

That 2010-11 campaign was a memorable one as Porto won the league title by a whopping 21-point margin from rivals Benfica, lifted the Portuguese Cup and also the Europa League thanks to Falcao's winner against Braga in Dublin.

Villas-Boas was poached by Chelsea that summer and Pereira stepped up. They were able to retain their league title, losing just once all season, but crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage and were crushed by Manchester City in the Europa League last-32.

They won another league title in 2012-13, impressively going the whole 30-game season undefeated though only finishing one point ahead of Benfica, but lost to Malaga in the Champions League last-16.

Pereira was heavily criticised for his decision to start James Rodriguez on the bench in both legs with the Colombian contradicting his manager by insisting he was 100 per cent fit.

Everton need all the help they can get to escape the relegation battle as they languish in 16th 

That summer he didn't get the Everton job and instead ended up with Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia and then Olympiacos in Greece, where he took over midway through the 2014-15 season and guided them to a league and cup double.

Surprisingly he left and moved on to Fenerbahce, but that lasted only one season before the club fired him midway through his contract.

In 2017, he resurfaced at German second division club 1860 Munich but was unable to prevent them being relegated to the third tier after a play-off defeat.

He actually replaced his old boss Villas-Boas at Shanghai SiPG and in 2018, his first year in charge, led them to the Chinese Super League title, breaking Guangzhou Evergrande's seven-year winning run.

Wayne Rooney (left) is open to a return to Everton after he and former England team-mate Frank Lampard (right) emerged as another contender to replace Rafa Benitez 

They weren't able to back that up in subsequent seasons before Pereira left in December 2020, and his return to Fenerbahce wasn't very happy either.

But he would no doubt relish the opportunity to take the Everton job and he is now the bookmakers' favourite ahead of the likes of Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.

Pereira comes with a pretty good reputation and he'll certainly have to be 'forward-thinking' to stop Everton fans wistfully thinking of past glories.