West Ham will seek to outflank Newcastle today by offering their vacant managerial position to Gianfranco Zola, having admitted that the Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, is no longer under consideration for the role at Upton Park.
Zola has emerged as the London club's preferred candidate ahead of the former Italy coach Roberto Donadoni and, with personal terms having effectively been agreed, confirmation of his appointment as West Ham's first foreign manager could be made later today. Indeed, the club are already drawing up tentative plans to unveil the 42-year-old at the Boleyn Ground as early as Thursday ahead of the weekend trip to West Bromwich Albion.
Bilic's reluctance to break the terms of his contract with his national federation served to remove him from contention for the position created by Alan Curbishley's resignation last week. The 39-year-old had explored the possibility of continuing his role with the national team in tandem with duties at West Ham until January, when he would have served his notice with Croatia, in a last attempt to strike a compromise with his suitors, but the Premier League club were not prepared to be left with a part-time manager until the new year.
Instead, the Upton Park board insists it was left with two "incredibly strong candidates" on their two-man shortlist, comprising Zola and Donadoni, though the man recently voted Chelsea's greatest ever player was very much the favoured candidate. Zola was the only contender to be interviewed twice, first by the technical director, Gianluca Nani, and then by the chief executive, Scott Duxbury, and impressed both with his vision for West Ham under his stewardship.
Zola, currently coaching the Italy Under-21s alongside his former Chelsea team-mate Pierluigi Casiraghi, has indicated that his team would play the attacking, attractive brand of football long craved at Upton Park. The former Napoli and Parma playmaker may have too many connections with the west London rivals for comfort - he spent seven years as a player at Stamford Bridge and is still revered across the capital - but he boasts the charisma and enthusiasm sought for the role at the Boleyn Ground, and has been given a glowing reference by the Italian Football Federation to back up his credentials.
Those attributes were being digested by the West Ham chairman, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, last night, Nani and Duxbury having reported back after a weekend of talks with the candidates, with the club's hierarchy aware that Newcastle had expressed an interest in luring the Italian to St James' Park. They are, however, confident that interest could be deflected given that Zola is understood to be reluctant to move to Tyneside, despite the fact that he remains good friends with the Newcastle executive director (football), Dennis Wise.
West Ham's board will meet again today and expect to be in a position to offer the job to their favoured candidate - personal terms had been discussed and as good as agreed with both Zola and Donadoni during the interview process - in the hope that Zola will be able to attend the game at the Hawthorns, with the team to be selected by the caretaker manager Kevin Keen.
By then, Bilic could just be contemplating what might have been. Duxbury and Nani decided against flying to Zagreb to speak with the Croat face to face, aware that the original favourite for the role is currently consumed with thoughts of defeating England in World Cup qualification tomorrow night. The complicated reality of trying to extricate Bilic from his contract ultimately proved impossible to resolve, particularly once the option of a part-time manager was quickly rejected.
The fourth candidate on West Ham's list, drawn up at the weekend, was the former Getafe manager Michael Laudrup. He had been expected to travel to London last night but has now accepted an 18-month contract to manage Spartak Moscow.
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