EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

View: ‘Zola favorite for West Ham manager position’ for more information. 42 year old Gianfranco Zola has agreed to a 3 year deal with West Ham as their new manager. West Ham released a statement announcing the change: “Gianfranco was our first choice. We were very comfortable with the three options we had - Zola, Donadoni and Collins - but Gianfranco came out on top”.

Zola played with Chelsea from 1996 to 2003 which might have given him an advantage over the other competitors. West Ham is a typically English team and seems to have favored the manager with EPL experience. “It’s true that he has no experience of managing a club side, but he knows the Premier League very well. His English is very good and he can talk about football with English players and inspire them. He has a record of developing young footballers, which is very important to us, and was obviously a world-class player. Experienced players like to have a manager they can respect as a footballer.”

John Terry suggested he was on the correct path to eventually become Chelsea’s manager, “I’m sure one day he’ll be back at Chelsea working with us. He’s got a little bit more experience after managing Italy’s Under-21 side so it’d be great for him to get more experience at West Ham and hopefully one day be Chelsea manager.”