The Mirror claims that Zola is unhappy with the way the club is going, and wants to walk away from his £1.8 million annual salary. Grant is the favourite to replace the pint-sized Italian, with Martin Jol, Steve McClaren and Croatian national coach Slaven Bilic also reportedly on the Gold/Sullivan shortlist.

The Sun also covers its back page in Hammers-related news, with David Sullivan's assertion that "if we get the right bid we will sell any player every player except (Scott) Parker" prompting the headline 'Under the Hammer'.

Sullivan's claim is clearly not true, incidentally, since it's clear that if they got the right offer they would sell any player including Scott Parker. It's just that they mean they'll be pushing for bigger money for the England midfielder, because if Real Madrid offered to clear West Ham's entire debt mountain with a silly money offer for Parker then Gold and Sullivan would be straight round to their superstar's house helping him pack his suitcases.

There could be a World Cup reprieve for the England WAGS as the Independent claims Fabio Capello is to re-think the ban on players bringing their wives and girlfriends out to South Africa for the World Cup.

That'll be good news for Steven Gerrard and Alex Curran, who have told the Daily Star (in a front page 'world exclusive') about their 'Love Split Hell'.

To the paper-buying punter at the newsstand it's a story that promises salacious gossip about one of the country's best-known footballers and his equally well-known wife. Inside, however, the story turns out to be very different: it turns out that Curran and Gerrard are right as rain, and the 'love split hell' referred to is just the hell of having to put up with gossip on internet websites claiming that they're about to break up.

As false advertising goes this is an almighty humdinger, a bit like buying a car and finding out after the deal is done that you've just bought a parking space. Mind you, if you do get duped then at least the Star only costs 20p.

The presence of the WAGS at the World Cup may or may not prove to be good news for England fans (though Heat readers will love it), but one piece of news that could devastate the nation's chances in South Africa is Wayne Rooney forcing an early return for Manchester United this weekend.

The PFA player of the year is trying to rush his return from groin injury so that he can help keep United's title chances alive against Sunderland this weekend, according to the Daily Mail. Let's hope that somebody tells him to put a lid on it or the Three Lions will whimpering rather than roaring come June.

The Sun carries a story about Robbie Keane's potential return to the Premier League, with Wolves apparently keen to snap up the Tottenham striker - currently enjoying a terrific loan spell at Celtic - now that they know they'll be in the top flight again next year. Wolves are also reportedly keen on Reading midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bristol City striker Nicky Maynard, with £3m summer bids in the offing for each according to the Mirror and the Daily Mail.

Staying in the Midlands it looks like Birmingham City's Steven Carr has some explaining to do about his inflammatory hand gestures to Aston Villa fans during the derby at the weekend. A fan has complained to police about Carr apparently making a well-known hand gesture to a section of the crowd. Carr will have to convince investigating officers that he was merely waving a friendly greeting rather than inciting Villa fans to acts of self-abuse.

And finally, the news that Manchester City have asked the League to agree an emergency goalkeeper loan following the injury to Shay Given has prompted The Times to do a bit of investigating - and it turns out that no fewer than nine goalkeepers are on the payroll at Eastlands. Think about that the next time your other half complains that, despite wardrobes full of clothes, she has literally nothing to wear to a party.

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