• 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

A win may or may not keep West Ham up, depending on results elsewhere, but failing to beat Wigan would further increase the angst at Upton Park. With Scott Parker available after suspension West Ham should have enough to exploit their opponents’ poor away form, yet as Wigan demonstrated in coming from 2-0 down to beat Arsenal last weekend they are a team of sharply fluctuating moods. Certainly Gianfranco Zola’s defence cannot afford a repetition of the errors which helped Liverpool to an easy 3-0 victory at Anfield on Monday. David Lacey

Venue Upton Park, Saturday 3pm

Tickets £35-51 (0871 222 2700)

Last season West Ham 2 Wigan 1

Referee A Wiley

This season’s matches 24 Y75, R5, 3.33 cards per game

Odds West Ham 11-13 Wigan 7-2 Draw 13-5

West Ham

Subs from Kurucz, Stech, Gabbidon, Daprelà, Boa Morte, Spence, Collison, Stanislas, Ilunga, Diamanti, Franco, McCarthy, Mido

Doubtful Cole (knee), Boa Morte (match fitness), Ilunga (calf)

Injured Dyer (hamstring, 2 May), Tomkins (ankle, 2 May), Hines (knee, Aug),

Suspended None

Form guide LWDLLL

Disciplinary record Y62 R3

Leading scorer Cole 9

Wigan

Subs from Pollitt, Stojkovic, Scharner, Moses, Thomas, Sinclair, Boyce, Gómez, Scotland, Amaya, Koumas, Edman

Doubtful Thomas (thigh)

Injured Kingson (groin, unknown)

Suspended None

Form guide WDLLWL

Disciplinary record Y58 R2

Leading scorer Rodallega 9

Match pointers

• West Ham won only one of their last five home league meetings with Wigan

• Wigan have kept one clean sheet in their last 16 Premier League away games, conceding 44 goals at an average of 2.75 per match

• West Ham have seen eight opposition players sent off this season, more than any other side in the division

• 30% of Wigan’s goals have been headers, the largest proportion in the top flight

• Valon Behrami has committed more fouls without being booked (38) than any other player

Premier LeagueWest Ham UnitedWigan Athleticguardian.co.uk

• Draw at Everton ‘lifts spirits and confidence’
• ‘What matters is what we do on the pitch,’ says manager

Gianfranco Zola said West Ham United had delivered the perfect response to their critics – inside and outside the club – after his relegation‑threatened team ended Everton’s seven-match winning run at Goodison Park and eased the pressure on their besieged manager.

The draw put the Hammers a point ahead of third-from-bottom Hull City, albeit having played a game more. Zola has endured a turbulent spell of public criticism from the West Ham co-owner David Sullivan.

“This is the right way to respond,” said Zola, who had questioned his future at the club following a defeat by Stoke City last weekend. “What matters is what we do on the pitch. The only way to respond is through football. We cannot stop the criticism. People want to give their opinions and judge us but we showed today that we are 100% focused on football.

“I’ve no other feelings apart from being pleased for my team. It is a difficult situation but we don’t want to stop fighting. That was what we said to the players before the game. All the team decided to fight until the end. No matter what, we’re going to fight until the end of the season and today was a clear demonstration of that because we never gave up.”

While the result at Goodison has not improved West Ham’s survival prospects dramatically – and while they will be without the influential Scott Parker for their next two matches, after the midfielder collected his 10th booking of the season – Zola believes the point gained will have a major influence on the morale of his squad.

Zola, who saw his striker Mido miss a first‑half penalty, said: “We are still very