• Israeli ‘proud and honoured’ to become manager at Upton Park
• ‘Avram’s arrival is just the latest reason for real optimism’

Avram Grant has signed a four-year deal to become West Ham manager, subject to the Israeli being granted a work permit, the club confirmed today. It is an appointment that brings “experience and stability” according to the club’s co-owner David Gold.

“I am proud and honoured to be the manager of West Ham,” said Grant, who is currently out of the country. “It will be an exciting challenge and I am ready to do my best. This is a fantastic club with great fans and a history that is respected around the world. I am already looking forward to getting to work with my players in July and preparing for the new season.”

Grant will be officially unveiled later this month, but he has already received words of support from Gold and David Sullivan, the co-owners.

Sullivan said: “I am delighted to welcome Avram to West Ham and am confident he will prove a success. We have taken our time over this appointment and are certain we have got the right man.

“We are all looking forward to next season with new players coming in and Avram’s arrival is just the latest reason for real optimism.”

Gold added: “I have to say that having met Avram and spent some time with him that we have got our man. He is a perfect fit. We needed experience and stability. He is a footballing man and quite frankly his reputation speaks for itself. He has a great sense of humour and I am sure the players will relate to him and the fans will warm to him.”

Avram GrantWest Ham UnitedJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

• Italian’s stance has shifted over past week
• Manager will seek settlement of up to £1.9m to leave

Gianfranco Zola is set to leave West Ham United at the end of the season but intends to sit down with the owners to secure a dignified, negotiated exit with a payoff rather than quitting as manager.

Zola’s initial intention had been to leave once West Ham had secured their future in the Premier League but his stance is understood to have shifted over the past week and, rather than walking away and appearing to accept full responsibility for this season’s toils, he will now seek a settlement over the remaining two years of a contract worth £1.9m a season.

The Italian’s relationship with the co-owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, has been fractious at best. He has become more defiant in part because of the support he has received from the players and is deeply frustrated by Sullivan’s comments that all of the squad, bar the midfielder Scott Parker, will be available for sale this summer.

Gold said he hoped Zola would stay as manager after Saturday’s win against Wigan Athletic all but mathematically kept West Ham in the top flight for another season. The co-owner was speaking sincerely but the words put the onus on Zola to quit if he were unhappy and the manager is now less minded to do that.

Gold and Sullivan will meet Zola to discuss his future after the final game of the season on 9 May. “Franco has indicated he doesn’t want to discuss his position until the end of the season and that’s fine by us,” said Sullivan, who has yet to indicate publicly whether he wants Zola to stay on. “We shall ask him what he has in mind, we will see what he wants to do.”

There was an indication that West Ham may well be planning for a future without Zola in the £4m bid the club has made for Graham Dorrans, the West Brom midfielder. This was rejected by Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, who said: “As I have stressed several times since we achieved promotion over two weeks ago our aim now is to retain our core players and try to strengthen our squad around them. I want to make it clear again that Graham Dorrans is not for sale.”

With Zola’s future in doubt any interest in Dorrans would surely have been driven by Gold and Sullivan rather than a manager who might soon be leaving.

Zola came close to resigning at the end of last month when he returned to his native Sardinia to consider his position after a run of six consecutive defeats, which threatened West Ham’s Premier League status. But Zola returned to declare he wanted to stay to help West Ham avoid relegation, and his team collected seven points from the next four games to make the club all but secure. The Italian has had a particularly difficult season, with West Ham’s onfield struggles compounded by fragile finances and the criticism players received from Sullivan, who bought West Ham with Gold in January.

Following West Ham’s 3-1 home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers on 23 March Sullivan published an open letter on the club’s website in which he described that performance as “shambolic and pathetic”. This caused Zola an unwanted distraction ahead of the following game with Stoke City, which was lost, prompting the manager’s bout of soul-searching in Sardinia.

West Ham’s difficult season was also reflected by Sullivan insistence that only Parker was not for sale. He said: “Other than Scott Parker, there is not a player we wouldn’t sell if it was the right bid. Scott will not be sold and we will be buying more than we are selling. There will be no fire-selling and we will enhance the squad, not diminish it. We will have to shake up the pack because there is no point kidding ourselves otherwise we will be in the same position next year – the table doesn’t lie.”

Hesaid although Matthew Upson would be offered a new contract, his England colleagues Robert Green and Carlton Cole would not. “We’ll make [Upson] a proposal for a new three-year contract. We would give him an offer of a comparable level to what he is on now. But Upson has a year to go so if we get a good offer we will take it.”

Gianfranco ZolaWest Ham UnitedPremier LeagueDominic FifieldJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

• Squad is ‘united’ behind Gianfranco Zola
• England defender confident of avoiding relagtion

Matthew Upson has said West Ham have taken heart from the battling 2-2 draw with Everton and their performance at Goodison Park proves the squad is united behind the manager, Gianfranco Zola.

The result left them still only one point above the bottom three, but the manner of performance and spirit shown in adversity suggested it may be a turning point.

The days before the match had been dominated by speculation over Zola’s future and his apparently uneasy relationship with the club’s co-owners, David Gold and David Sullivan.”We are aware of the situation and the manager’s feelings and commitment,” said the England defender. “The manager deals with it with the players to their faces. Whatever else is said and done, we know the truth and we are together as a group.

“We are totally understanding and clear of the picture of what is going on. We are putting everything we can together. I think we can stay up, I think we are good enough.”

West Ham have five games left to avoid relegation, starting with next weekend’s home match against Sunderland.

After finally breaking a run of six successive defeats, Upson feels they can now generate some momentum.

“It is nice to break that cycle because it is a poor cycle and not nice to go through. It was nice to stop the rot,” said Upson. “It is something to build on but there is plenty of work left to do. There are not a lot of hours of football but we are in the mix and it is up to us to drag ourselves out of it.

“We need to get together again this week, have a good strategy for the weekend and commit to it. If we deliver a performance I am sure we can win the game.”

West Ham UnitedGianfranco ZolaPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk