Zola in prime position if Hammers fail to land deal for Bilic this week

Club chief executive Scott Duxbury and technical director Gianluca Nani spent several hours with Zola in Rome this weekend and were enormously impressed by the former Chelsea star who is coach of the Italian Under-21 side.

Duxbury also wants talks with Bilic this week, but a move for Michael Laudrup has been ruled out after he agreed to become Spartak Moscow manager today.

The big problem with the Croatian coach is that he is preparing for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against England and cannot be seen to be distracted from that challenge.

West Ham, who have been careful never to say publicly that Bilic is their No1 choice for the job, are still interested in their former defender but are becoming increasingly concerned about complications surrounding the Croatian, including his availability.

His representatives have intimated he may be reluctant to move to England until January because of his commitment to Croatia, a position which would not be acceptable to West Ham. The club may also face competition from Newcastle for both Bilic and Zola.

The complications surrounding Bilic could still evaporate over the next few days but, if Croatia beat England in Zagreb, it would be even more difficult for him to execute an exit strategy.

West Ham, too, feel they are in a strong bargaining position. They have top-quality alternatives in Zola, former Italian national coach Roberto Donadoni and Laudrup and ideally want their new man in place by the time West Ham meet West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday.

The Hammers also want to avoid a scenario such as that which surrounded the England coach's job following the departure of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Then, chief executive Brian Barwick went chasing Luiz Felipe Scolari but when the Brazilian rejected the FA's advances, Barwick was left with little room to manouevre.

"Gianfranco Zola ticks all the boxes," said a West Ham spokesman today.

"Before we began this recruitment procedure we laid down the criteria regarding attacking football, developing the youth academy, having experience of the English game and a good knowledge of the language.

"He fits the bill on all of those."