There must have been something in the air at Stamford Bridge in the 1997-98 season that has prompted Ruud Gullit's players to try their hand at management. Of the 21 men who made an appearance for Chelsea that campaign and have retired from playing, 15 have worked as managers and coaches, including Dennis Wise, Mark Hughes, Gianluca Vialli and Dan Petrescu.

It is perhaps not surprising, then, that Gianfranco Zola, who has agreed a three-year deal to become the West Ham United manager, should be handed a top job without significant experience, in the same way as Vialli (Chelsea) and Hughes (Wales) before him. What is curious is the criteria that clubs employ in doing so.

In most jobs in industry, let alone those at companies with turnovers north of £50million, “relevant experience” and “body of work” would be among the prime criteria. In Zola's case - as with the aforementioned, or Roy Keane at Sunderland or Gareth Southgate at Middlesbrough - there is little of either to go on.

Zola was Pierluigi Casiraghi's right-hand man with Italy Under-21

(although his official title was “technical consultant”, because when he got the job he lacked the necessary coaching badges). But evaluating an assistant's contribution is tricky because you do not know where one coach's influence begins and another's ends.

What you can say is that, in terms of results, Italy Under-21, despite playing some excellent attacking football, did not deliver: they failed to get out of the group stage at the European Under-21 Championship finals in 2007 and were knocked out by Belgium - despite Italy enjoying a man advantage for some 70 minutes - in the quarter- finals of the Olympic Games in Beijing last month.

It seems unlikely, then, that Zola's coaching CV helped to get him the job (forget the repeated references in the media to a “glowing assessment from the Italian FA”; it is not as if it was going to rubbish him).

Clearly his footballing CV played a big part, as did his personality, which would have shone through in his interviews with West Ham officials. Zola is among the most universally admired Chelsea players of recent decades: a decent, likeable man who behaved like a gentleman and was often applauded by opposition supporters.

In terms of image, West Ham could scarcely have done better. But Zola brings another quality to the table, the value of which is far more debatable: he is a star. And you have to wonder, especially when juxtaposed with another alumnus of that Chelsea class, Roberto Di Matteo, how much it weighed on West Ham's minds.

Di Matteo is in his first season in charge at Milton Keynes Dons, the Coca-Cola League One club. He is a cerebral man who speaks four languages (German, Italian, French and English); a man who hit the books after retirement, earning a postgraduate degree in business along with his coaching badges. As a player, he has one Italy cap fewer than Zola and had a top-drawer career, but, partly because of his role as a midfield player, partly because of his laid-back, understated personality, he lacked Zola's star power.

And the sneaking suspicion is that this may have something to do with why - despite his obvious qualities - he is learning his trade the old- fashioned way, working his way up through the lower divisions, rather than walking into a top job.

Indeed, it is amazing how much certain clubs believe that a player's performance and personality on the pitch reflect on his ability to manage a club. There is the far too obvious fact that men such as José Mourinho, Arsène Wenger and Arrigo Sacchi were little more than pub players, while others who were genuine superstars crashed and burnt when put in charge.

But there is also subtler evidence that playing style and management style bear little correlation. Take Keane, for example. As a player he had perpetual “red mist” issues, chasing match officials up and

down the pitch, admitting to trying

to injure a fellow professional and nearly getting into a fight in the players' tunnel before kick-off. As

a manager with Sunderland he has been calm, detached and über-

professional.

Zola was typically humble in addressing the issue on Tuesday night. “In these two years [working with Italy Under-21] I put a lot of effort into the job and I did my best,” he said. “I learnt a lot, I can only hope it will be useful.”

West Ham will be hoping the same.