Four in line for Irons hot seat

West Ham have confirmed that Slaven Bilic, Michael Laudrup, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Donadoni are on their managerial shortlist.

Hammers non-executive director Mike Lee revealed that Italian duo Zola and Donadoni both impressed during their interviews for the Upton Park hot seat this weekend, while they are due to hold discussions with former Denmark international, Laudrup, on Monday. Croatia head coach Bilic is also a target but the club accept they might have to wait too long to get the opportunity to take the Hammers' old boy back to east London.

As the club aim to have a new man at the helm before next weekend's trip to West Brom, Lee told the BBC: "There's no favourite at the moment, we have set up a proper selection process.

"We have been surprised and pleased by the number of applications we have had and we are moving towards a short shortlist and ideally have a manager in place in time for the West Brom match next week.

"Slaven Bilic could potentially be on that shortlist but it depends very much upon his availability. If for whatever reason he was not available until January in terms of working with us, I'm afraid that will rule him out.

"We have a very strong shortlist and it's going to be a tough decision with some exciting candidates.

"From the meetings that have taken place so far, the two that have really shone have been Donadoni and Zola."