Tuesday, May 11

Zola out


Gianfranco Zola has been sacked says a terse statement on the West Ham website. No word on the future of Clarke, so presumably the cheaper option for the board is to keep him on as the new man’s assistant.

It’s tough on Zola, who has behaved with dignity throughout the season despite much interference from The Club Landlord. The style of football he wanted was right for West Ham, but once Nani went his position became untenable.

Franco wants to be a coach and is unproven in the transfer market, when what we need is someone who can work the market like Roy Hodgson has and improve undervalued players.

We have underachieved with the squad we’ve got, and big errors have been made in the transfer market, such as selling Collins and not recruiting a right back. These might have been down to Nani, but we have to assume he was working in liaison with Zola and Clarke.

You have to admire Zola’s sporting behaviour and his refusal to criticize referees. The players clearly liked him and I hope he’s a success as a coach, perhaps in Italy.

But this is the chance to recruit someone with more experience and hopefully the strength of character to stand up to the owners.

The good news is that Gordon Brown has made himself available.


4 comments:

Pete May said...

Big Joe texts:

Please tell me it's not Average Grant.

Pete May said...

Jo says:

At least Zola will go quickly and with dignity and not try to contort a coalition with Phil Brown and Glenn Roeder...

Pete May said...

DC e-mails:

"A needlessly but predictably messy, chaotic and dishonourable end for Zola - who'd be these owners' PROs, eh? - but make no mistake: Zola deserved to go. His record was terrible, and with a squad containing a larger number of decent players than - what? - half the teams that finished above us.

"What does that tell you about Franco and Clarke's alleged motivational and tactical acumen? He may have been a beautiful player to Mick McCarthy's hod-carrier, but McCarthy has been a better manager. And Martinez and half a dozen more. GZ can't blame 'outside influences' or noises off; his results were crap before the Mad Duo arrived in January.

"Scary to see A Grant top of the bookies' list for the UP hot seat..."

Pete May said...

Apparently Zola reached out to Clegg, but Clegg was still mad about Jonathan Spector at left back.

Sent from North Bank Norman's iPad