Hearts midfielder Mehdi Taouil has told club owner Vladimir Romanov that caretaker boss Gary Locke is the right choice to take over on a permanent basis.
The Moroccan midfielder insists the former club captain and current first-team coach has got what it takes to replace John McGlynn as the new Tynecastle manager.
The Gorgie club are understood to be considering a number of candidates including former manager and club record scorer John Robertson, one-time Jambos assistant boss Peter Houston and sacked Bristol City manager Derek McInnes.
Taouil, however, has led the calls for the interim boss to keep the job full-time.
He said: "I would like Gary to get the job because I know what Hearts means to him. I know how much of a Hearts man he is and how much he loves the club.
"It would be the perfect job for him. Not only because he is a real Hearts fan, but because he has his badges. He is capable of doing it and knows football really well. He knows Scotland really well.
"So I would say why not Gary? But then it's not me to make the that decision."
The sacking of McGlynn is the latest drama to have hit the Edinburgh outfit.
Court battles with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs were followed by speculation over Romanov's future after he resigned his position with his Lithuanian holding company UBIG.
Taouil, though, insists the off-field events have only succeeded in unifying the under-pressure squad ahead of Sunday's Edinburgh derby meeting with Hibernian at Easter Road.
He said: "It's not easy all the time but we manage to get our heads up and do our job as best as we can.
"But it's not as bad as everybody makes it out to be. There are lovely people here at the club and for my part, since I have been here, I have felt good.
"I get on with everybody and I don't have a problem. It might sound bad, and okay we had some problems like late wages that affect so more than others, but on my part I have no problems here.
"It's not that we are immune to it, but we have become used to a lot of stuff going on. Even now when we hear about something happening off the pitch, we just don't give it that much attention. Nearly every week there is a new story about Hearts. So we just try to focus on what's happening on the pitch.
"Does that give us a closer bond? Yeah, it does. In any job or in life, if something hard comes to you, the closer you are to your friends or your work partners, the better it is for you."
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