West Ham United have identifiedRoberto Di Matteo as their first choice to become their new manager in thesummer. The Schalke 04 boss guided Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2012and he is said to be unsettled with life in Gelsenkirchen.
Sam Allardyce'sreign as the Hammers' boss is set to finish at the end of the season with manyof the fans calling for his head during the past couple of seasons. He has beenat the helm since June 2011 and he guided the club from the Championship to thePremier League and has developed them into an established team in the top tieronce again.
His style of play,mixed with some poor results and league positioning in recent seasons have seenthe supporters becoming enraged and protesting for him to leave. They startedthe season exceptionally well and were mixing with the top four for a longwhile before a dramatic decline has seen them drop to ninth place in the leaguestandings.
The acquisition ofthe former Chelsea interim boss, Di Matteo, will no doubt delight the fans whoare calling for attacking, fluid Football, and they are keen to see a change inthe club’s hierarchy.
David Moyes is thefavourite to take over as the next manager of West Ham with Rafa Benítez andSlaven Bilić also mentioned. There are a host of good managers in the frame butthe chairman is keen to speak with the Italian, Di Matteo.
The Schalke bosstook over the job in October last year when the club were eleventh in the Bundesliga and now they are infifth place and made it to the Champions League last 16, where they wereeventually knocked out by Real Madrid despite winning the second leg 4-3 indramatic fashion.
Whether he getsthe job is still very much in the balance but there are many believing the WestHam manager next season will not be Big Sam, whose time looks to be up.
With the Hammerslooking to push on next season for European qualification, they may need tochange their boss, but also keep hold of their star players. The likes ofWinston Reid and Aaron Cresswell in particular are targets for the Premier League’selite clubs so they will belooking to shut them out, also.
