Zola sacking at West Ham was inevitable

It came as no great shock to hear that West Ham had sacked their manager Gianfranco Zola. He had been in charge for less than two years and had signed a new four-year deal towards the end of last season.

A short and to the point statement from West Ham said,

“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.”

Since the two David’s, Sullivan and Gold, took over the club in January, it had looked to be only a matter of time before Zola was shown the exit door. Sullivan labelled Zola’s team as “pathetic” following their 3-1 defeat by Wolves a few weeks ago and when asked about Zola’s future after the match, he responded: “I wouldn’t like to comment on that. Who knows?”

Demise

After Zola managed to keep West Ham in the Premier League courtesy of a 3-2 win over Wigan, his demise appeared to be even closer when he announced that he had not been consulted over a bid for West Brom midfielder Graham Dorrans. It also emerged that when Sullivan announced that the entire squad was for sale except Scott Parker, Zola heard about that at the same time as everyone else.

This season has been a real struggle for Zola and West Ham and they ended up in seventeenth place, just five points above the relegation zone. In many seasons the thirty-five points they accrued would have seen them relegated, but on this occasion West Ham were lucky that Hull, Burnley and Portsmouth were so poor.

Poor

The team managed just one away win all season and that came on the opening day. At home, they were slightly better but poor performances in games such as those against Wolves, Stoke and Bolton will live long in the memory of disgruntled West Ham fans.

Perhaps against that background it is hardly surprising that West Ham have made the decision to part company with their manager. Having said that, it is difficult not to feel sympathy for Zola who had a difficult position behind the scenes before the David’s arrived and an apparently untenable one after they did.

Respect

The players obviously had a huge amount of respect and love for their manager as could be seen by their reaction to him during and after the win against Wigan. Scott Parker has spoken highly of Zola and just this weekend, Luis Boa Morte spoke out against the owners for criticising the manager and the team.

There is no doubt that Zola was a great footballer, is a really nice man and knows how the game of football should be played. It is likely that he will go on to be a very successful manager somewhere and I doubt whether he will find it difficult to get another reasonably high profile job.

Wages

Despite that, West Ham have under-achieved with the squad they have and the wages they are paying Zola are too high for a club in their position. I wish that Zola hadn’t been sacked but totally understand why he has been.

I think a majority of West Ham fans will say, “Thanks for what you’ve done Franco, now let’s get another manager in who can take the club forward.” I don’t think too many will fall out with the decision that has been made.