Nani coy over Zola

West Ham refuse to confirm appointment

Last updated: 9th September 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Nani coy over Zola

Nani: No Zola deal yet

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West Ham's sporting director Gianluca Nani has refused to confirm that Gianfranco Zola will the new manager of the club.

Nani was talking to the Italian media and stressed that because of Zola's commitments with his country's Under-21 side he could not comment in detail about the possible appointment of the Chelsea legend.

He admitted that Zola was one of the candidates for the role, but he would not confirm that he was set to be named as Alan Curbishley's successor.

"Is Zola a done deal? No, absolutely not," Nani told Radio Radio.

"I say officially he is a name we are talking about and a strong and fascinating candidate but we must respect that he is preparing for a very important game.

"I think that the announcement could arrive at the weekend that the coach will take over the team by next week.

"I repeat, Zola is one of the candidates but he must focus on the Under-21 side and then we will consider his candidacy.

"There are names that are important and have a great past and a great present as players and as coaches."

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Nani admitted that the Hammers had rejected a number of candidates because they were unsuitable for the role.

"We considered many situations, other Italian coaches who we have discarded due to the lack of knowledge of the language such as Mario Somma or Francesco Guidolin," he continued.

"There are also two coaches who are working with foreign federations and we respect this.

"West Ham's target is to grow through a project, as Fiorentina most recently did, consolidate our position in the Premier League and establish a system of scouting that can help us find new talent.

"Arsenal and Ajax are famous for playing with great young players and we would eventually like to get to this."