As the season ends and clubs begin to asses what the have gained and lost through the course of a 10 month campaign, the brunt of the losses more times then not falls on the manager, even though there is only to some extent that a manager can influence a team, the amount of funds available to the man and the players in the squad also count a lot towards the teams progress.
West Ham United a club with a rich heritage and history and just survived the drop the season by one spot in the table ending the season on 17th spot, and in result has sacked their manager Gianfranco Zola.
A statement on the club’s website stated that the directors would like to thank Mr.Zola for all that he did for the club and appreciate his commitment to West Ham, but the club is heading in a different direction now and are focusing on finding a replacement for him right now.
Zola who served another London club Chelsea with great distinction, and also was an integral part of Italian national team, decided to try his hand at management first time when he joined the Hammers back in 2008 for his first stint as the man in charge, and the start was more then promising, but things stared to fall away as time went by. The club ran into serious problems and ended up avoiding Relegation by the thinnest of margins.
The club, which is sinking heavily in debts, was triggered by the collapse of former Owner Gudmundsson's business empire. The former Birmingham owner later bought the club David Gold and David Sullivan in January, and ever since the change at the top Zola’s time at the club has been under a dark cloud.
The Italian managers had suggested that there were disagreements between him and the club management, when in April he had said that he was not consulted when West Bo player Graham Dorrans was approached.
Zola who was coach for the under 21 Italy side, replaced Alan Crubishley at West Ham, said he was surprised to know about the bid which was through a newspaper, Zola finished a strong 2008-09 season with a 9th spot in the league table, 2 points shy of the Europa league place, and the former Chelsea man was offered a new deal until 2013.
Gianfranco Zola who always played football with his heart on his sleeve, never backed out of a challenge and even though the writing was on the wall almost midway through the season that he will be shown the door at the end of the season, he made sure that he did all he could to ensure another season in top flight football for the hammers, doing his part of the job.
Now Mark Hughes who was axed from Manchester city at the end of last season is a likely candidate to replace Zola, along with Croatia’s former West Ham player Slaven Bilic, and Portsmouth boss Avram Grant.
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