• Zola reaches financial settlement with West Ham
• Italian looking to return to management as soon as possible

Gianfranco Zola has set his sights on a swift return to management after finally reaching a satisfactory financial settlement with West Ham United.

Zola was sacked after the end of the season despite saving West Ham from relegation. The club have since appointed Avram Grant as manager, while Zola’s assistant manager Steve Clarke has also left Upton Park.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at West Ham and I will always be very grateful to the club for giving me the opportunity to manage in the Premier League, especially at a club with such a great tradition in positive and attractive football,” Zola said.

“I am looking forward to finding a new challenge in the game and returning to management as soon as possible.”

The West Ham job was Zola’s first managerial post and although he enjoyed a fine first season, guiding the club to a ninth-placed finish and earning a new four-year contract, the Hammers struggled to avoid relegation last term.

David Gold and David Sullivan took over the club in January and Zola always appeared to be on borrowed time. A number of negative public comments from Sullivan did not help the Italian’s situation and it was no surprise when he was relieved of his post.

The League Managaer Association’s chief executive, Richard Bevan, has backed Zola to make a quick return to the dugout.

“He is a talented young manager and I am sure he will be back working in the game, passing on his knowledge and sharing his enjoyment of football with a new group of players,” Bevan said.

“The LMA shares Gianfranco’s disappointment at him leaving West Ham but would like to acknowledge the club’s assistance in resolving matters quickly and amicably.”

Gianfranco ZolaWest Ham Unitedguardian.co.uk

• 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

Today’s piffle has shuddering man-love for, in no particular order, Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Michael Yardy, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom and Andy Flower

Misplaced optimism comes in myriad forms. It might be a commissioning editor – a self-styled maverick, perhaps, who insists on being called The Big Easy –announcing that Eldorado is “the future of television, peeps”. It might be the Mill splashing on industrial quantities of Joop and a challengingly tight floral shirt before heading off to Chassers for student night. Or it might be Rafael Benítez and Sir Alex Ferguson, managers of clubs with approximately no pots to do a No1 in, eyeing up expensive players.

This morning’s grapevine juice – freshly squeezed and chilled at precisely 1.2 degrees – is that Benítez has pulled himself away from the Coinstar machine at his local Aldi in Liverpool for long enough to leer lovingly in the direction of Sampdoria striker Giampaolo Pazzini, Sevilla winger Jesús Navas and Carlton Cole.

Cole is also wanted by Aston Villa and Birmingham. Indeed, Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is so keen to ward off second-season syndrome that he has bid for 247 different players – including £8m for Wigan winger Charles Insomnia – and employed a crack team of researchers to assess whether it’s worth Birmingham bothering to turn up next season, given the crushing inevitability of said syndrome.

West Ham United will replace Cole with Everton unit Yakubu. They may bring in Lyon’s Sidney Govou, too, just because they can.

As for Lord Ferg, he is living, youseing, empurpled proof that obsession need not be narrow-minded. Having spent years sniffing like an unfeasibly zesty dog around one Lyon starlet, Karim Benzema, he is now pursuing another: Benzema’s old chum Hatem Ben Arfa.

Ferguson has also made enquiries about Benfica’s magisterial left-winger Angel di Maria, apparently ignoring the fact that, whatever he bids, Real Madrid/Manchester City will double, and then treble, and then multiply by £4.7m.

In an unrelated and essentially hilarious development, Neil Lennon plans to make Crystal Palace’s Darren Ambrose his first big signing if he gets the Celtic job.

Finally, there is a rumour going round that England won the World Cup yesterday: deservedly, emphatically, brilliantly, humbly. We’ve heard some nonsense in our time, but this takes the biscuit.

West Ham UnitedLiverpoolTransfer windowRob Smythguardian.co.uk