Manager interviews sees Irons board clear diaries

West Ham’s board has cancelled all appointments and cleared their diaries of of everything other than manager interviews through to next Monday!

None of the three will be attending the important Premier League meeting over the next three days as they bid to bring the managerial chase to an end.

The top three  candidates – Rafa Benitez, David Moyes and Carlo Ancelotti – have now been firmly ruled out but a number of meetings are set up from now and into next week as the hunt goes on.

And a top insider made it clear: “There is absolutely no anxiety or panic among anybody that  we won’t get a quality boss.

“The board members have put themselves on 24 hour standby as they are dealing through agents, obviously, and things can happen at any moment.”

Seville boss Unai Emery is among those who are expected to be involved in talks over the next few days but as reported on this site over recent days such as Frank de Boer and Michael Laudrup are all but out of the running.

ClaretandHugh has discovered that even ahead of the Real Madrid intervention, Benitez was looking for a larger budget than the Hammers had available and both Moyes and Ancelotti were looking for in excess of £50 million.

And suggestions that as the ‘big names’ fell, Slaven Bilic would become the obvious choice, have also been knocked back with the news that several names are now waiting for their appointments in front of the board at David Sullivan’s Essex mansion.