It has come as no surprise this morning to hear that Gianfranco Zola has been sacked as Manager as West Ham United following a tough season at the helm at Upton Park, Zola managed to keep the hammers in the Premier League under tough circumstances but his reign has come to an end. Ever since Davin Gold and David Sullivan took over the club mid-season it has been expected that Zola would be given the high jump come the end of the season and those rumours have finally come true. Zola was a hugely popular Manager with the players as they showed with various goal celebrations at the end of the season as they managed to keep the team in the Premier League.

All attention will now turn to potential replacements for Zola with the club expected to take their time over the replacement with the team at a huge point in their history, the right appointment now is crucial if the club are to move up the table as the owners want. Any new Manager will face the tough financial restraints as Zola did with huge debts meaning there will be no big transfer war chest as Gold and Sullivan look to get the club get back on track financially. There are a few names being considered at Upton Park with the Sack Race believing that the likes of Avram Grant, Mark Hughes and Slaven Bilic are the early front runners, this is reflected in the Next West Ham Manager Odds with all three featuring highly in the market.

Avram Grant has done a good job under tough conditions at Portsmouth and would jump at the chance to stay in the Premier League if he was given the chance by West Ham over the next couple of weeks and he is being well backed to do just that. Mark Hughes is another obvious candidate for the job and he has been out of a job since leaving Man City at Christmas and may see Upton Park as the ideal destination, Hughes done a good job at Blackburn and knows the Premier League inside out so may be seen as a good option to take the Hammers to the next level. A hugely popular appointment would be Slaven Bilic who is currently in charge of Croatia and the former Hammers defender may see this as the chance to make his move to the Premier League with the Croats not qualifying for the World Cup.

Next West Ham Manager Odds with SkyBet.com - 11/05/2010

A Grant – 1/3
A McLeish – 7/1
A Pardew – 8/1
M Hughes – 10/1
G Hoddle – 12/1
D Jones – 12/1
A Curbishley – 14/1
S Bilic – 14/1
P Lambert – 20/1
D O’Leary – 25/1
Others On request

All markets are supplied by SkyBet

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