Chelsea legend being considered by Birmingham and Inter
Published:It is now over a year since Gianfranco Zola was sacked from his first managerial role in charge of West Ham and the lovable Italian is believed to be in the running for two vastly different jobs, one at Birmingham and the other back home at Inter.
The clubs may be worlds apart in terms of trophies won and global recognition but they share a sense of disappointment about events at both since the end of a 2010-11 campaign that promised so much yet ended rather underwhelming.
For Birmingham, Carling Cup success in springtime suggested that the future was bright, however their Premier League form crumbled to the point of relegation and they have since lost boss Alex McLeish to fierce rivals Aston Villa.
Inter fans meanwhile saw their four-year stretch as the dominant force in Serie A ended by their neighbours AC Milan, salvaged pride with the Coppa Italia only to then be left stunned as Leonardo decided that he wanted to quit to be a director at PSG.
The gloom well and truly set in when glamour targets to replace the Brazilian such as Marcelo Bielsa and Andre Villas Boas failed to be lured, leaving them with a choice of coaches that though talented have recently been sacked by smaller teams.
Those include Gian Piero Gasperini and Delio Rossi, last of Genoa and Palermo respectively, while there is still hope that former player and assistant Sinisa Mihajlovic can be poached from Fiorentina.
Zola’s agent Fulvio Marruocco claims that rumours linking his man to the position has substance and that the former Parma and Chelsea forward is very much interested, though such an appointment would is unlikely to inspire worried supporters.
Whichever side he ends up with, if either, he will have his work cut out. The Nerazzurri are 6/4 to regain the Serie A scudetto, and Birmingham are 8/1 to top the Championship.
