The likeable Italian accepted the managers position with the Hammers in September 2008, despite having no previous managerial experience at club level. He took over from Alan Curbishley and with the help of former Chelsea colleague Steve Clarke took West Ham to ninth in the Premier League.

Zola was offered a four year deal following his first season accomplishment, but it seemed that the honeymoon period was over for West Ham with some pitiful results this season.

The club have had there fair share of problems off the pitch as well as on it and the recent acquisition by former Birmingham owners David Sullivan and David Gold has only added further pressure on the team and management.

A statement on the club’s website read:

“West Ham United confirm that they have terminated the contract of Gianfranco Zola. The Board of Directors would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him well for the future.The club will now be focusing its efforts on seeking a replacement. The club will be making no further comment on this matter.”

West Ham were absolutely rubbish.  They appeared to be zone marking instead of man marking and throughout the whole game appeared to be standing back and letting Liverpool play. Without Scott Parker, who was suspended, they had no one closing down Liverpool’s attacking midfielders Steven Gerrard or Yossi Benayoun, and they paid the price.

One of three former West Ham players, Benayoun scored the first goal with his stomach and was booed throughout by the travelling West Ham faithful. Neither Javier Mascherano, who came on as a second half substitute and Glen Johnson, who had an excellent game, appeared to get the same treatment.

Liverpool didn’t play particularly well but were rewarded with a 3-0 win, even without two clear penalties; and with only three games to go West Ham really did look like a side that had given up all hope of surviving another season in the Premier League. In particular, Carlton Cole, who I would expect to leave West Ham at the end of the season, if Gianfranco Zola doesn’t.

Another top versus bottom clash follows on Wednesday when Hull play Aston Villa.  Liverpool are back up to sixth place after tonight’s victory, but Villa will be looking to replace them again, while Hull will remain in the bottom three even if they beat Martin O’Neil’s team.

Tonight’s 3-0 win for Liverpool completes another exciting weeekend of Premier League fixtures that threw up some very surprising results to keep everyone on the edge of their seats in what is by far the most exciting Premier League season I can remember.

Tottenham thrashing Chelsea, Manchester United sneaking another victory over Manchester City in injury time AGAIN, and Arsenal losing to Wigan 3-2 after being 2-0 ahead with just 10 minutes to go.

The online sports betting markets are working overtime at this, the business end of the Premier League season; and for what it’s worth I think West Ham are going to find themselves playing in the Championship next season.

It’s true, the Premier League is the best league in the world!

After just seven months in the job, Chelsea decided to sack Felipe Scolari following a drab 0-0 result with Hull City on Saturday.  It has been suggested by Scolari’s agent tonight that it was Roman Abramovich himself who made the decision and not Peter Kenyon or the Chelsea board.  This follows reports suggesting it was with Abramovich’s insistence that Scolari was offered the job over Mark Hughes last July.

More than the draw itself, I believe Abramovich realised there is a distinct possibility that if results continue to go against Chelsea, they may well miss out on Champions League qualification next season.  They have thrown away the Premiership title this season.  But losing out on Champions League qualification would be a complete disaster.

I can’t believe any team are going to want to relinquish a successful manager in February.  So of the possible quick replacements who is actually available that may be on Chelsea’s hitlist?

Frank Rijkaard and Roberto Mancini have the right pedigree and are available. And let’s not forget Avram Grant, though he may also be a target for Portsmouth.

The nutters are out and rumours are flying.  Apparently Peter Kenyon was seen in a London hotel with Kevin Keegan yesterday, and Glen Hoddle was spotted at Chelsea’s training ground today. Though that was a pre-arranged match between his academy XI and Chelsea reserves.

Other names that have already been touted include Guus Hiddink though I cannot see Abramovich prizing him away from managing Russia amidst World Cup qualification. But does anyone remember how close Peter Kenyon came to prizing Sven Goran Eriksson away from the England job?

But if Chelsea are looking for a former player to bring stabilty to the team how about Didier Descamp, Roberto Di Matteo, Dennis Wise or Mark Hughes?

Personally, I think Mark Hughes could be a good appointment; and if Manchester City can line up a replacement, he might be available. But surely, the names at the top of the hit list must be Gianfranco Zola & Steve Clarke.

Big spending Harry Redknapp continues to wheel and deal by bringing Chimbonda back to Spurs for an undisclosed fee and finally signing Carlo Cudicini from Chelsea to bolster his teams defences. The Daily Mail had claimed in an exclusive last week that Cudicini had already joined Spurs for a £1m fee. It appears that Chelsea have let the player leave on a free transfer in honour of his long support of the club.

Tony Adams is following in his mentor’s footsteps, with a double swoop of his own for Portsmouth, bringing in some much needed reinforcement to his squad. Hayden Mullins has joined from West Ham for an undisclosed fee, the 29 year old midfielder has spent the last five years at Upton Park and has the experience in the premier league that Portsmouth are looking for to bolster the team.

Mullins is joined by the 21 year old Porto midfielder, Pele, who has signed on loan until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent move. Both players are available for tomorrows premier league game against Aston Villa.

Pele is a Portugal Under 21 international attacking midfielder, who only joined Porto in the summer, after playing for Inter Milan and scoring in the Italian cup final. An excellent prospect for Pompey.

And yet another double, as Steve Bruce replaces the Wigan players that he has lost in the January transfer window, finally completing the transfer of Hugo Rodallega, from Mexican club Necaxa for a fee of £4.5m. The 23year old Colombian striker is hoping to be available for Wednesdays game against Liverpool.

Bruce has also spent a further £2m to secure the services of Ben Watson from Crystal Palace, sneaking the 23 year old midfield player from under the noses of premier league strugglers Middlesbrough. Watson returns to the premier league after an absence of almost four year.

The amount of money in the English football Premier League has corrupted the game of football.  Everything now revolves around money.

Not a statement by Karl Marx but the prophetic words of those Swedish pop legends, Abba; and after the shananigans of the English Premier League over the past few weeks, it’s as if Benny & Bjorn were giving a prophetic warning to all English football fans.

First, there was money from Sky TV that helped promote the idea of the English Premiership and has helped to make it the richest football league in the world; and now the Premier League has become the playground for foreign owners, many of whom have no knowledge or interest in football as entertainment, but see the ownership of an English Premier League team as a prize medal or worse still, simply a way of making money.

As far as I’m concerned there are positives and negatives to consider, but what is for sure, football ain’t what it used to be!

Sky TV money has certainly helped attract some of the best players in the world.  Now teams can compete with other leagues by offering outrageous wages to the most wanted.  This is nothing new.  The Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga leagues have been attracting world class players from all over the world for decades by offering players more money.

The negatives of the Premier League now relying on television companies for money includes the ridiculous nature of kick-off times that now start Saturday lunchtime and finish on Monday evening.  It may be a small thing, but it has taken the edge off a traditional Saturday afternoon when all teams would kick off at 3pm and lead to an exciting “Final Score” at the end of Granstand.

Now we have foreign owners buying up all the bigger teams.  Again, this is great for attracting the best players in the world but it has led to short termism and the acceptable ideas that managers are not choosing who to buy and sell, let alone given time to build a team.

Short term business management is going to affect whether the cream of young English talent rises to the top much more than whether they can break into a first team squad full of international players, as it doesn’t allow managers to spend so much time nurturing young talent or taking risks.

The latest debacle caused by Premier League money is the fiasco of an independent tribunal judging that West Ham are to pay Sheffield United £30 million 16 months after they were relegated to the Coca-Cola Championship because it was judged that West Ham played Carlos Tevez, who was deemed to be an illegible player.

I understand Sheffield United’s stance to a point; afterall they are a business.  A business that, by being relegated, lost serious amounts of revenue.  But whether or not West Ham were breaking the rules, they were simply relegated because they failed to win enough points over the course of a season and were not good enough for Premiership status.

Premiership status is one thing, teams breaking the laws of the game is another.  But when £30 million is thrown into the equation, well that’s a game with two halves; and I wonder what Sheffield United’s chairman Ken McCabe would choose given the option of £30 million in compensation or to be reinstated to the Premier League.

He may well ask to ‘phone a friend’ though if the friend was Neil Warnock, who lost his job as Sheffield United manager due directly to their relegation, I don’t think he would agree with Neil’s answer, do you?

Clarke handed in his resignation on 12th September after spending 20 years with Chelsea as a player and coach.

Steve Clarke was promoted from youth team coach in 2004 by Jose Mourinho.  Clarke and Mourinho formed a great working relationship which won Chelsea two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cup’s in a three year period.

When Mourinho left Chelsea in September 2007 it was unclear what would happen to Steve Clarke; and though he remained as first team coach at Chelsea under Avram Grant, he was “assisted” by Henk Ten Cate, undermining his role and authority.  Knowing the players affection and respect for Clarke, this undoubtedly started the Stamford Bridge boat rocking!

When Felipe Scolari was appointed Chelsea manager in July 2008 he brought his own coaching team with him, but again Clarke was kept on.  But it was surely only a matter of time before someone as respected as a coach as Steve Clarke would be offered a suitable role.

I believe Zola and Clarke will work well together, and am more confident of Steve Clarke’s success at Upton Park than I am Gianfranco Zola’s baptism of fire.

Like Paolo Di Canio before him, I believe with a few wins playing exciting attacking football, and the West Ham fans will instantly love him and choose to ignore his love and affection for bitter rivals Chelsea.

Clarke and Zola’s first game in charge will be on Saturday at 3pm when West Ham play Newcastle.

The 42 year old Italian replaces Alan Curbishley at Upton Park who resigned over ‘interference’ from the West Ham board room.

Most recently Zola has been working as assistant coach with the Italian under 21 side with Pierluigi Casiraghi, who was initially expected to join Zola at the Hammers. Despite the relationship they have Casiraghi has opted to stay in Italy and continue his work there.

Chelsea assistant coach Steve Clarke has been earmarked by Zola and Clarke is keen to join his former team mate, but Chelsea have refused to accept his resignation  and will not allow West Ham to talk with him.

Chelsea confirmed this was indeed the situation but would only add that talks with Clarke are ongoing. Clarke has spent twenty years at Stamford Bridge and is a firm favourite with the fans as well as commanding respect from his peers within the game.

Still to be publicly sorted out, it very much looks like the sale of James Milner to Aston Villa and the direcotrs attempts to sell Joey Barton & Michael Owen was the last straw for Kevin Keegan; and though he has a past record of walking away from situations, it looks like he was given no choice after a disagreement with the Newcastle United board of directors and imparticular, owner Mike Ashley, Keegan has apparently walked away from the job as he is not been given the respect & authority he requires, especially on transfers in & out of the club.

A similar situation has arisen at West Ham where this week Alan Curbishley resigned over the transfers of Anton Ferdinand & George McCartney to Sunderland.

So, can the so-called “European” style of management work in England, where the manager, more commonly referred to as the “first team coach” be left to manage the first team only and leave the finances, wages, transfers in & out to the director of football & the board? Well, yes it can nad now that football is big business and therefore run like big business, whether you like it or not, it WILL!

But it seems that every Premier League team that has tried to work with this continental approach, has had a fair share of problems with the manager feeling his position is being compromised & his authority undermind.

After managing the club, David Pleat was appointed director of football at Tottenham but it caused friction with the managers he worked with.  More recently, Jose Mourinho’s successful reign at Chelsea was brought to an abrupt end due, in part, to friction with directors that were having influence over transfers.  And now Keegan at Newcastle & Curbishley at West Ham.

The main problem is obvious here.  Each time there has been a conflict it is because the directors of football & others have been brought in without the consent of the manager.  If Keegan had honestly helped select & appoint Dennis Wise as director of football at Newcastle United then I would be amazed.  Ig however, he had appointed someone he trusted & agreed with, like when he brought Terry McDermott & Arthur Cox back to St. James Park as part of his trusted coaching staff then surely there would be no conflict of interest.  The fact that Keegan & Curbishley are thrust in front of the cameras answering the media & fans alike, only to find they are being undermined when it comes to who is going to be sold, then their position as figurehead is quite obviously made untenible.

Furthermore, if they are not in control of the players being added to their squad, how can they build & shape a team?  Can you imagine someone telling Brian Clough or Alex Ferguson who he was going to pick from?

There is big money to be made in the Premier League, and big money attracts wealthy businessmen.  But only a meeting of business & football in the best interests of football will work.