Forget relegation - Gianfranco Zola will take West Ham into Europe if he's given enough time and patience: Darren Lewis' Big Lunchtime Read

By Darren Lewis in Mirror Football Blog

Published 11:29 05/11/09

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You can normally spot teams with less than total belief in their manager from a mile away.

Chelsea under Guus Hiddink last season were light years ahead of the performances under Luis Felipe Scolari.

The Hull players' commitment to Phil Brown looks to be less than 100percent at the moment.

And Tottenham's players went through the motions in the last days of Juande Ramos last season before the Spaniard was eventually eased out and Harry Redknapp took over.

Now take a look at the highlights of West Ham's dramatic victory over Aston Villa.

Every one of the Hammers players oozed passion, hunger, desire and a determination to dig the club out of the dire straits they currently find themselves.

Match-winner Zavon Hines looks to have every chance of becoming a player if he keeps his feet on the ground and does not allow the hype around him to go to his head.

Carlton Cole is one of the most improved players in the Premier League. Scotty Parker never stops running in midfield, and when Matty Upson takes a break from trying to engineer a move away from Upton Park to a top four club, he actually does quite well for the Hammers.

At the back, even before his penalty save from Ashley Young in front of Fabio Capello, keeper Robert Green pulled off some stunning stops, most notably from Stilian Petrov.

Indeed Green remains one of the Hammers most consistent performers and is an excellent last line of defence.

And rookie manager though he may be, Zola is a man who - given the time - could lead the east Londoners into Europe.

Yes, the fiscal problems remain with Alan Curbishley's tribunal victory another threat to their already fragile finances.

But the time to worry is when the players are not doing the business and there is no chance of that at the moment.

In fact, West Ham's biggest problem is the lack of time that exists in football right now.

Arsenal fans are purring at the moment with the club in title contention and into the knockout stages of the Champions League with two games to spare.

But before the season kicked off there were more than a few grumbles about Arsene Wenger's insistence that he would place even more faith in his youngsters instead of splashing out big money for the quick fix.

Up in Merseyside a fascinating scenario is being played out with Liverpool lurching from crisis to crisis.

At any other club, with the team's form too patchy to launch a title challenge, already out of the Carling Cup and clinging to the Champions League by their fingertips, the fans would be burning effigies of Rafa Benitez outside the ground.

And if they were doing that at Anfield, the Spaniard would indeed be finished.

Instead, however, the Reds faithful remain adamant that the way to take the club forward is not to abandon their boss at the first sign of trouble but to stick by him.

Its a fascinating situation given the unanimous view outside of Liverpool that Benitez's teams are too negative, his buying policy poor and that for all the players he has bought he still relies hugely on Gerrard and Torres.

Yet you wonder whether it is the Anfield fans who are right and the rest of us who are wrong.

How can we preach about managers needing time one minute then demand a man who has won an FA Cup, a Champions League, reached another Final and also claimed a semi-Final spot be sacked?

Zola has a vision for West Ham that, with patience and an understanding of the fact that he is having to nurture youngsters and integrate new signings, could pay dividends.

Like anyone else, he makes mistakes - Savio for £9million definitely being one of them. But he is the kind of gamble you have to take when some of the quality targets the club have been in for, such as Eidur Gudjohnsen, don't want to come to the club.

Others, such as Inter Milan's Mario Balotelli, Lazio's Goran Pandev  and Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh are so highly thought of that either their clubs don't want to let them go or other, bigger clubs are for them - such as Arsenal in Chamakh's case.

The result? Zola has to work with what he has. Big Carlton has come on a bundle under him, Hines looks to be going in the right direction.

Behind them Jack Collison and James Tomkins are improving for their regular first team football and while there have been ups and downs for Mark Noble his goal celebration on Wednesday night showed his commitment to the cause.

Prior to the Villa win, Zola's assistant Steve Clarke told us journalists that the problem was not with the players' application. It was with their confidence as the team had not won since the opening day of the season. That confidence should be back now.

And it goes without saying that West Ham will not be relegated. Rather, I see them going from strength to strength with a manager and his assistant whose careers are on a similar trajectory.

Do you agree with Darren? Let us know by leaving a comment below...

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