West Ham United hope to speak with Slaven Bilic, the Croatia manager, before the World Cup qualifier with England on Wednesday as they move closer to appointing a new head coach.

Mike Lee, a West Ham director, confirmed that four names remain in the frame to replace Alan Curbishley as manager, with Bilic, Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Donadoni and Michael Laudrup all strong cotenders.

Reports have suggested Bilic would consider taking the West Ham job should he be allowed to continue his work with the Croatian national team until January. However, Lee says the club would not wait until then before naming their manager, but did hint that Bilic may be alloweds to continue as Croatia coach on a part-time basis for the World Cup qualifiers in October.

When asked if the club would be talking to Bilic before Wednesday's game with England, Lee said: "If that's possible.

"Of course we understand that he has to have a focus on the England game, that's understandable, but I think we do want to be able to make progress.

"Let's make it clear, there has been talks with his representatives and they have expressed an interest in the job on his behalf, but it comes down to personal contact.

"Slaven Bilic could potentially be on our shortlist but it depends very much upon his availability. If for whatever reason he was not available until January in terms of working with us I'm afraid that will rule him out.

Lee said that both Zola and Donadoni had impressed in their interviews, while Laudrup is expected to meet club officials tomorrow.

"There's no favourite at the moment, we have set up a proper selection process," Lee said. "We have been surprised and pleased by the number of applications we have had and we are moving towards a short shortlist and ideally have a manager in place in time for the West Brom match next week.

"We have a very strong shortlist and it's going to be a tough decision with some exciting candidates.

"From the meetings that have taken place so far the two that have really shone have been Donadoni and Zola."