Zola still front-runner for Hammers job

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The club's directors are understood to have made Zola, 42, their top choice at a meeting on Monday, narrowly ahead of fellow Italian Roberto Donadoni.

West Ham will look to complete talks as soon as possible but may face a slight delay - the former Chelsea midfielder is joint coach of the Italy under-21 side and they are in action in Croatia on Tuesday night.

It is understood Zola's years of experience in the Premier League have given him the slight edge over Donadoni, the former Italy coach who resigned from that job after a disappointing Euro 2008 campaign.

Donadoni still remains in the frame in the unlikely event that a deal is not clinched with Zola, but Bilic is out of the running.

West Ham hope they will unveil their first foreign manager at a news conference on Thursday.

Bilic's hopes of succeeding Alan Curbishley foundered on the complications surrounding his release from his current job as coach of Croatia, though he was never top of West Ham's wish list.

The Hammers' chief executive Scott Duxbury and technical director Gianluca Nani have led the selection process and the pair provided a detailed report to a meeting of the club's board.

They outlined the merits of as many as 30 names who were initially considered and then the reasons why they were whittled down to a shortlist of six.

The report also recommended Zola and Donadoni should be regarded as the leading contenders.