Zola set to leave West Ham

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:GIANFRANCO ZOLA is set to leave West Ham United at the end of the season but intends to sit down with the owners to secure a dignified, negotiated exit with a pay-off rather than quitting as manager.

Zola’s initial intention had been to leave once West Ham had secured their future in the Premier League but his stance is understood to have shifted over the past week and, rather than walking away and appearing to accept full responsibility for this season’s toils, he will now seek a settlement over the remaining two years of a contract worth €2.2 million a season.

The Italian’s relationship with the co-owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, has been fractious at best. He has become more defiant in part because of the support he has received from the players and is also deeply frustrated by Sullivan’s comments that all of the squad, bar the midfielder Scott Parker, will be available for sale this summer.

Gold said he hoped Zola would stay as manager after Saturday’s win against Wigan Athletic all but mathematically kept West Ham in the top flight for another season. The co-owner was speaking sincerely but the words put the onus on Zola to quit if he was unhappy and the manager is now less minded to do that.

Gold and Sullivan will meet Zola to discuss his future after the final game of the season has been played on May 9th.

“Franco has indicated he doesn’t want to discuss his position until the end of the season, and that’s fine by us,” said Sullivan, who has yet to indicate publicly whether he wants Zola to stay on. “We shall ask him what he has in mind, we will see what he wants to do.”

There was an indication that West Ham may well be planning for a future without Zola in the €4.6 million bid the club has made for Graham Dorrans, the West Brom midfielder. This was rejected yesterday by Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, who said: “I want to make it clear again that Graham Dorrans is not for sale.”

With Zola’s future in doubt any interest in Dorrans would surely have been driven by Gold and Sullivan rather than a manager who might soon be leaving.

West Ham’s difficult season was also reflected by Sullivan’s insistence that only Parker was not for sale. He also said that although Matthew Upson would be offered a new contract, his England colleagues Robert Green and Carlton Cole would not.

Parker scored the crucial winner against Wigan last week and Sullivan wants to retain the services of the talented midfielder.

Sullivan said: “Other than Scott Parker, there is not a player we wouldn’t sell if it was the right bid.

“We will make (Upson) a proposal for a new three-year contract,” he said. “We would give him an offer of a comparable level to what he is on now, which he may or may not want to take.

“But Upson has a year to go so if we get a good offer we will take it.”