Former West Ham midfielder Valon Behrami rues the club’s sacking of Gianfranco Zola as manager

Valon Behrami – West Ham (Getty Images)

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Former West Ham star Valon Behrami believes the club should never have sacked former manager Gianfranco Zola, and that Avram Grant was the wrong choice to replace the Italian.

Behrami left Upton Park in January for Italian giants Fiorentina after never really settling in England but has highlighted his time with Zola as the most enjoyable of his spell at West Ham.

“They sacked him for no reason,” Behrami told reporters.

“We’d had a difficult season but we secured safety two or three games before the end of the season, even though we’d had a lot of difficult situations with the club and the takeover.

“All the team was with him. We felt that, with him as manager, we could improve. I know that is how I felt.

“So the players were very, very sad when they sacked him and the first day with the new manager was difficult to accept.”

Grant succeeded Zola at West Ham and Behrami believes they needed a stronger manager to come in and shake the club up from top to bottom. He feels Grant was always fighting a losing battle.

“It was a time when he had to change something, he had to bring something new. But he didn’t give a thing.

“We tried to do a good job but what the players needed was a reaction.

“We needed something new and we didn’t feel that we got it. We felt that the situation was the same, going down.”

New West Ham manager Sam Allardyce brings with him a distinguishable brand of football, one that Behrami would not like to be part of.

“I don’t like to play that way.

“I like to play like Zola wants to play, every time with the ball, every time trying to be attractive as well.”

Despite not being a fan of Allardyce’s style of football he believes he is the right man to bring success back to the club.

“Allardyce is a good manager, a manager with personality – strong,

“This is what West Ham need to get a good reaction. A big reaction.

“Avram was a good person but he left the situation to drift along too easily.”