Gianfranco Zola is expected to be named West Ham manager later this week after the club’s directors made him the favourite to take over from Alan Curbishley, who resigned last week.
West Ham hope to unveil their first foreign manager at a news conference on Thursday, but may face a delay as the former Chelsea midfielder is joint coach of the Italy under-21 side and they face Croatia on Tuesday night.
The Hammers’ chief executive Scott Duxbury and technical director Gianluca Nani provided a detailed report to a meeting of the club’s board. The report recommended Zola and Donadoni should be regarded as the leading contenders.
Kia Joorabchian, who works as an advisor to West Ham, said both Zola and Donadoni had impressed.
He told Sky Sports News: ”Zola has a lot of experience in the Premier League, he was admired by every fan in the league irrespective of which club they supported.
”He has built a big reputation for himself in Italy. He hasn’t Premier League experience as a manager but he understands the Premier League very much.
”But Donadoni has vast experience and is a good candidate.
”They are moving fast. They would like to appoint a new manager before the weekend but it is a process they will consider carefully.
”It is a different system, a more European system of working and it will be a manager who will be working under that style in order to minimise and avoid errors which have occurred in the past.”
