West Ham have confirmed they are holding talks with Manchester United assistant Steve McClaren about filling their vacant manager's post.
Managing director Paul Aldridge told the club's official website today he expected McClaren to make a decision this week. Harry Redknapp, West Ham manager since August 1994, left the club by mutual consent earlier this month.
"Manchester United gave us permission to talk to Steve and so far we've held one very long meeting with him," Aldridge said.
"It was a very productive meeting, a lot of points came out of it and he's gone away to think about everything.
"We expect to be speaking to him again quite soon, within days rather than weeks, and I'll be surprised if Steve needs any longer than that to come back to us because nothing in our meeting was left uncovered."
The 40-year-old McClaren, formerly Jim Smith's assistant at Derby, has been a key member of England manager Sven Goran Eriksson's coaching team this season.
He is one of the top young coaches in the country but is not a front-runner to take over from Alex Ferguson when the Manchester United manager quits at the end of next season.