Zola set for Hammers job

Gianfranco Zola will fly in to London on Thursday to start his new life as manager of West Ham.

The 42-year-old has agreed a three-year deal to succeed Alan Curbishley and he is due at Upton Park on Thursday to sign his contract.

The club will announce his backroom staff and it can been revealed that caretaker boss Kevin Keen will continue on the coaching staff - but ex-Hammers striker Paolo di Canio is not part of Zola's plans.

Steve Clarke, the Scot who is currently assistant to Luiz Felipe Scolari at Chelsea, has been linked with a move to becoming Zola's assistant manager - they know each other well from Zola's time there.

So too as has Pierluigi Casiraghi, with whom Zola worked with Italy's Under-21 side, but he has cast doubt on that saying: "If Gianfranco decides to go to England, I will lose a great coach and more importantly, a true friend. But I don't want to leave this national team."

Businessman Kia Joorabchian, who acts as transfer consultant for the Hammers, revealed Clarke is the preferred assistant manager for Zola.

"They are looking for assistants," he told Sky Sports News.

"Gianfranco has a very close relationship with one particular person, Steve Clarke. They are very close and they feel his experience in the Premier League, working under very big coaches at Chelsea, has given him a lot of experience.

"He is more defensively-minded than Gianfranco so he brings good balance. I think that is what he is going for."