ASK West Ham United’s cadre of youthful talents who the best footballer in training is and they will pick a man twice their age. Gianfranco Zola is paid to manage at Upton Park — to organise, motivate and lead a club with a heavy heart’s worth of problems — yet his skill, his sheer joie de vivre for the game, have not departed.

Staff versus players and the 43-year-old deletes decades, doing things with a football that have opponents gasping like excited kids. “It’s hard to keep Gianfranco on the sidelines,” chuckles young centre-back James Tomkins. “When he joins in, he’s got his touches that are brilliant.”

Playing his way out of trouble has always been the Zola way, and at West Ham it has taken on a new breadth of context. In his early years in Italy’s lower leagues, on through Napoli, Parma, Chelsea and Cagliari, there were markers, both hulking and cynical, to be endured, evaded and overcome.

In east London, he must shepherd a squad pared to the bone by faltering club finances, avoiding relegation from a viciously competitive Premier League while carrying the deadweight of its recent past.

Zola took charge of West Ham a year and six weeks ago, inheriting a playing staff so ravaged by economic necessity that his predecessor, Alan Curbishley, claimed constructive dismissal. Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson had spent recklessly beyond the club’s income, been blown away by the credit crunch, leaving others to clean up the mess. In tandem with former Chelsea teammate Steve Clarke, Zola turned around a team that had been stripped of more than £35m worth of footballers to finish the season in the top half of the Premier League. It was a notable achievement.

West Ham then passed into the hands of the Icelandic investment bank Straumur, which set up a holding company to prevent the club from becoming the Premier League’s first to enter administration. The aim was to sell to new owners once markets improved, with a promise that the club’s best players would not be moved on in the interim.

Bolstered by the success of Zola’s first season, Straumur seemed to believe the most important aspect of the club’s worth — Premier League status — could be taken for granted. For two months they have been sitting on a take-over offer valued at about £100m from an American investor, arguing that it leaves insufficient profit once the club’s debt (roughly £50m) and contingent liabilities (primarily, as-yet-undecided compensation payments to Sheffield United over the illegal registration of Carlos Tevez) are subtracted.

Straumur want £150m for the club, yet themselves are heavily in debt and could be forced into liquidation if they fail to reach agreement with creditors by December 11. In the meantime, West Ham’s playing resources have been further depleted, James Collins sold to Aston Villa against the wishes of Zola, England international defender Matthew Upson unsuccessfully offered for sale, and Lucas Neill allowed to run down his contract. Too many of technical director Gianluca Nani’s overseas recruits have failed to impress.

“Obviously I would love to see a little bit more tranquillity around this club,” says Zola. “We dealt very well last season with the problems and the reason was because we focused on the pitch, worked on the pitch and made things easier for everybody. That’s what I believe in. If you do football on the pitch, if you make things happen there, everything comes easier. If we play like that, who knows what can happen? Maybe a billionaire can buy us. Everything can happen but it goes through the process of playing football.”

The Italian’s team entered this weekend without a win since the season’s opening day, with just five points from eight games,and above only Portsmouth. There are worries that England internationals Upson, Robert Green and Carlton Cole could be offered for sale in the January transfer window, if the club’s ownership has not been resolved by then, but the manager will not discuss the “hypothetical” possibility of resigning his post should further privations be forced on him, convinced that he can still transform the club’s fortunes.

“I want to see this job through,” he says. “I know as a manager I get better if I work on this situation; the frustrations I can deal with. Last year we got through it and we can do the same again,” he says.

Holding fast to his principles furthers the development of the likes of Tomkins, who has grown into a Premier League and England under-21 regular in his year training under — and against — Zola. “He’s brilliant with the lads,” says Tomkins. “Such a calm man and a nice fella, and he’s really confident in the way we play. He tells us all the time, ‘Results are not going our way but it’s going to change round for us’. He gives us that confidence we need instead of saying we’re struggling.”

So much so that Tomkins believes today’s visit from Arsenal could be the match that turns this season around. “We do well against better sides, we play good football and concentrate on ourselves more than the opposition. We’re aware of how good they are but we’re confident,” he says. A smile and a belief in pure football. It’s the Zola way.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

West Ham fans have some reason for optimism as Gianfranco Zola prepares his side to take on Arsenal today. They last went seven league games without a win soon after he took over at Upton Park last season, including a 2-0 home defeat against the Gunners, but they recovered to finish ninth. The match that turned their season was a win at Sunderland, where they play next Saturday