West Ham switch off Zola power, turn to turbo-Croat Slaven Bilic

WEST HAM sacked manager Gianfranco Zola this morning - and appear ready to turn to their former Croatian defender Slaven Bilic next season.

Just three days after keeping the Hammers safe from the drop, new owners David Gold and David Sullivan wielded the axe and told the Italian he was out this morning.

A club statement ready simply: "West Ham have terminated the contract of Gianfranco Zola. The board of directors would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him well for the future.

"West Ham will now be focusing on seeking a replacement. No further comment will be made on this matter."

West Ham finished one place and five points above the relegation zone under Zola power, despite a spine of England internationals of Rob Green in goal, Matthew Upson at centre-back, Scott Parker in midfield and Carlton Cole up front.

Zola, 43, had no previous managerial experience at club level having been co-manager of Italy's Under 21s when he took over from Alan Curbishley in September 2008. The former Chelsea favourite signed a new four-year deal near the end of his first season, when West Ham finished ninth.

Zola was known to be uncomfortable with the two Davids - they made public their unhappiness with spending at the club when the former Birmingham co-owners took over at Upton Park and in recent weeks the little Italian was irked when Sullivan released quotes suggesting "everyone at West Ham is for sale except Parker".

Gold called Zola’s team “pathetic” when the lost 3-1 to Wolves and when defeat against Stoke followed on March 27, Zola said:

"I will consider overnight whether I'm doing a good job for this club or not.”

And even after the 3-2 win which secured the club’s Premier League status, Zola admitted he was not privy to the club’s approach for West Brom midfielder Graham Dorrans.

With Slaven Bilic, the Croatia manager who put England out of Euro 2008, strongly linked to the job, former West Ham star Tony Cottee said: "It was apparent right from the start Zola wasn't their man. I am pleased they haven't messed around - now the fans will judge this decision on the calibre of the manager coming in.

"They have undermined the management and the players. That doesn't make for a happy camp and I don't think the board handled it very well.”

Bookmakers have made Croatia coach and former West Ham defender Bilic favourite for the job, followed by current Portsmouth boss Avram Grant and former Manchester City coach Mark Hughes.

Brave Zola vows to carry on - but was there anybody else ready to lead the Hammers in this state?

THE Gianfranco Zola saga is not quite as it appears. Few managerial departures ever are. When he left Upton Park on Saturday night after a sixth successive defeat at the hands of Stoke, the little Italian believed he would never be back.

As a panic-stricken West Ham made approaches to (amongst others, apparently) Glenn Hoddle, Steve McClaren, Graeme Sounness, Slaven Bilic and Mark Hughes, Zola flew home to Sardinia admitting: “If the problem is me, why not leave? I will have to think about it a lot overnight. The players are trying very hard and the bottom line is to see whether I can help them or not.”

Then, after a couple of days at home in Sardinia, he emerged yesterday to insist: “I am determined to carry on. Losing on Saturday was emotional for everyone but I know we can turn it around and we have the ability to achieve our objectives My only thought for now is to keep this club in the Premier League and that remains my goal."

Zola, of course, is barely a year into a three-year contract worth almost £6m. After seeing millions squandered on semi-fit players like Dean Ashton, Keiron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg and, more recently, Mido and Benni McCarthy, the club can hardly afford another huge pay-out.

Looks to me like Zola was going to walk away with David Gold mouthing platitudes likie “we are 100 percent behind him”. They were happy to see Zola, a man of means, resign and leave the field clear for a grittier replacement like McClaren or Hughes.

And in the Daily Mail, we had the award-winning columnist Martin Samuel telling us new owner David Sullivan is angry with himself for not following his instincts and sacking Zola when he first took over with David Gold in January.

As always in these situations there are those you believe and those you don’t in the tabloids. Samuel, habitual winner of the various Sports Writer of the Year awards, is one who knows. He says: “In every utterance it is plain Sullivan thinks not only that he has the wrong man for the job but that he knew as much from the start.

“He resents sticking by Zola primarily to keep the fans happy. He is an angry man because he did not do what he wanted to do. And now it may be too late.”

Too late to sack Zola? It didn’t look that way on Saturday night, when the Hammers showed the improvement Sullivan had demanded but still slithered to a defeat which left them ahead of Hull and the relegation zone on goal difference alone.

But Samuel is right. It was too late. Nobody wants the poisoned chalice of overseeing the Hammers while the sink into the Championship, overtaken by a side as poor as Hull, revived by Iain Dowie.

On Sunday, after Hull have endured their own relegation shoot-out at Stoke, the Hammers must attempt to improve on that record of just three wins in 18 games against in-form Everton.

Zola is expected back at their Chadwell Heath training ground today, after giving everybody three days off following that sixth successive defeat, the Hammers’ worst-ever run in the Premier League.

And we’ve got Zola saying: “I have had time to think and reflect and we will have to work harder than we have before. I know we can get the results we need and it is just a question of making it happen."

Time to think and reflect? I think not. He fled to Sardinia expecting the sack. But when Hoddle said he wanted more money and McClaren said he was not leaving FC Twente until they had clinched the Dutch Ere Divisie title at the end of the season, Zola was forced to return and lead his poorly assembled bunch of misfits into the Valley of Doom.

Zola’s final words before he returns to training today: "The performance was better on Saturday but it is still not the level we should be at. We can, and will, do better as a team. We have a responsibility to turn things around and that is what we will do. I am here and ready to do what I need to do to get the results.

"We said before Stoke that one game would not define the season but we also know that each of the games we have left are cup finals."

Is that a knock-out cup or a poisoned chalice, Gianfranco?

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqck5JuZtuc

Hammer Blow after Hammer Blow: It's fool's Gold at Upton Park

JUST what you need isn't it? Poor old Gianfranco Zola, one of football's genuine nice guys, on a run of five defeats, fighting relegation, with sticky Stoke at home tomorrow.

Then the owners David Sullivan and David Gold say they want to sit in on your team meetings. And that's after Sullivan has posted an open letter on the website saying he was "angry and upset" at "the disorganised way we played" in the 3-1 defeat against Wolves on Tuesday.

Some other choice lines from the letter, which also went to the season-ticket holders? "I had no sleep last night having watch that shambolic performance" and "I apologise to every supporter and fully expect a dramatic improvement."

Great. Bet Zola never thought of encouraging a "dramatic improvement" himself. Am I the only one who has noticed the correlation between West Ham's slump and the arrival of Gold and Sullivan, the supposed saviours of the Hammers after the collapse of their Icelandic backersw?

England centre-back Matthew Upson, who should never have left Arsenal, has discounted Sullivan's comments on the club's website as "pretty irrelevant". He added: "I wouldn't say from a player's point of view it helps. We only concentrate on the coaches and the manager. They're the people we want to listen to."

And Zola has, according to the Daily Mail, refused to allow Sullivan into the team meeting as he prepares his side for the Stoke clash. He will be under enough pressure as it is. Two of his new signings, Egyptian Mido and South African Benni McCarthy, haven't helped.

McCarthy, 32, who has been out with a knee injury sustained soon after his £2.5m move from Blackburn, looked far from fit against Wolves but saw fit to tell every nearby journalist how he was going to lead the fight against the drop.

Mido meanwhile has told everyone who will listen how he is willing to play for a mere £1,000 a week - but was spotted by the great Charlie Sale eating fish and chips at the Golden Hind in Marylebone this week.

If it wasn't so tragic, it would be laughable. West Ham were cruising until Gold and Sullivan arrived and told the world how the car park attendants were earning £70,000 a year and the club was over-spending in all areas.

They've called for a 25 percent reduction in wages all round, leaving Zola struggling to motivate his troops, with or without Sullivan and Gold helping out in the dressing room.

Clearly the two former Birmingham owners, who made their money selling women's knickers and publishing dodgy magazines, have their own agenda.

Mark Hughes is being lined up to replace Zola (that's if the former Wales, Blackburn and Manchester City boss doesn't heed the call from Celtic) and nobody expects the little Italian, still adored by Chelsea fans, to survive the summer.

Of course, what should have happened, as any true West Ham fan will tell you, is that Gold and Sullivan should have arrived quietly, let the club see out the season in mid-table safety - and then made their changes and public proclamations.

Instead, from where I sit, their intervention has sent morale and performances plummeting. And if Burnley or Hull get their acts together, the Hammers could be in for a few serious blows as the bubble bursts over the final seven games of the season.

See also: www.nealcollins.co.uk or www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICqvSAzA0AY

Grim news for South Africa and West Ham as Premier League gears up for whacky Wednesday

SOUTH AFRICA’S already frail World Cup hopes took an alarming turn for the worse this week with the news that West Ham striker Benni McCarthy’s 31-year-old knee may let him down before the big kick off against Mexico in Johannesburg on June 11.

McCarthy, who completed his controversial £2.5m move from Blackburn days before the January transfer window closed, limped off during his West Ham debut at Burnley on Saturday.

He had a glorious chance saved off the line in a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat - and is unavailable for the Hammers in their crucial Premier League clash against Birmingham tomorrow night.

My Upton Park source tells me: “Benny’s not looking good. That knee is a problem. South Arica may bfe in trouble if they think he’s going to be their major World Cup striker.”

The injury is not believed to be related to the knee injury McCarthy suffered against Fulham in November 2007 or any of the long-running problems which have ruled him out of so many internationals for South Africa in recent years.

But coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is insisting he will only pick a fully-fit McCarthy after his repeated spats with the Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys) management.

When McCarthy left Ewood Park after refusing to train during his final days at Blackburn, former boss Sam Allarydyce insisted: “Benni’s not getting any younger. The legs are not quite as good but the talent is still there.

“When he came to Blackburn he scored 23 goals in his first year and hasn’t quite replicated that since.”

McCarthy’s problems add to Parreira’s woes – his side moved up from 85th to 81st in the FIFA rankings this week after friendly wins over Zimbabwe and Swaziland in Durban last month, but they remain the lowest ranked World Cup hosts in history.

While their cricket team celebrates crushing the world’s best Test nation India at Nagpur by an innings and their rugby Springboks hold the World Cup, the football side faces abject failure as they prepare for the biggest sporting event in the Rainbow Nation’s history.

Parreira is in England this week to encourage the Premier League clubs to release their players for a pre-World Cup camp in Brazil next month. With Kevin Pienaar sent off during Everton’s 1-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby defeat against Liverpool on Saturday, it’s been a tough trip

And things aren’t much better at West Ham, where new owners David Sullivan and David Gold – who were in charge at tomorrow’s opponents Birmingham until their buy-out last November – claim to have taken over a club heading for financial meltdown.

Sullivan said today: “One of the player facilitators, a guy who drives players around, is on £50,000 a year, the car park manager is on £70,000 a year. We’ve had to make redundancies and there are more to come.

“We are asking everyone to take a 25 percent pay cut at the end of the season – and any unhappy players will be sold.”

Boss Zola – who has picked up just six points in 10 games - hit out at the timing of Sullivan’s intervention as the club battles against relegation, but the new owners are unlikely to be deterred.

With the club £110m in debt following the Icelandic banking crisis which brought down the previous owners, Sullivan added: "Gianfranco is highly paid and I think all managers in the Premier League are overpaid. I can't believe the contracts I've inherited.

"The club is in a mess and we all have to pull together. If we go down, I can't even consider the situation. "It'll be Armageddon if we are relegated. It'll be worse than Newcastle."

Tomorrow night also sees huge top-of-the-table clashes in the Premier League with Liverpool travelling to Arsenal in the big battle for third place while Manchester United are at Aston Villa and leaders Chelsea go to Everton. And Portsmouth? The Premier's bottom club play Sunderland tonight knowing the club could be wound up in the morning. And that's not wound up as in "highly motivated" it's wound up as in "financially unviable".